Chapter 3
Primary care: putting people first
This chapter describes how primary care brings promotion and prevention, cure and care together in a safe, effective and socially productive way at the interface between the population and the health system. In short, what needs to be done to achieve this is “to put people first”: to give balanced consideration to health and wellbeing as well as to the values and capacities of the population and the health workers1. The chapter starts by describing features of health care that, along with effectiveness and safety, are essential in ensuring improved health and social outcomes.
In this chapter
- Good care is about people
- The distinctive features of primary care
- Organizing primary-care networks
- Monitoring progress
Figures
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The effect on uptake of contraception of the reorganization of work schedules of rural health centres in Niger
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Lost opportunities for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) in Côte d’Ivoire: only a tiny fraction of the expected transmissions are actually prevented
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More comprehensive health centres have better vaccination coverage
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Inappropriate investigations prescribed for simulated patients presenting with a minor stomach complaint, Thailand
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Primary care as a hub of coordination: networking within the community served and with outside partners
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Tables
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Aspects of care that distinguish conventional health care from people-centred primary care
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Person-centredness: evidence of its contribution to quality of care and better outcomes
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Comprehensiveness: evidence of its contribution to quality of care and better outcomes
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Continuity of care: evidence of its contribution to quality of care and better outcomes
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Regular entry point: evidence of its contribution to quality of care and better outcomes
pdf, 183kb