Building the economic case for primary health care: a scoping review

Overview

The term “primary health care” (PHC) first emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1920s with the publication of a government white paper, the “Dawson Report”. The report suggested that PHC centres would become the model for providing community health care services as a strategy to address health inequalities and respond to the increasing complexity of health care delivery.

Over the following decades, the concept of PHC developed significantly, culminating in the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration, which defined PHC as “essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford”.

Now, 40 years later, the Global Conference on Primary Health Care reaffirms the global commitment to PHC, as a key strategy to achieve universal health coverage and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To date, the implementation of PHC internationally has been limited by the lack of a universally accepted definition. The background paper for the Global Conference on Primary Health Care, A vision for primary health care in the 21st century, aims to resolve this issue by describing PHC as whole-of-society approach to health, based on three interrelated and synergistic components.