Primary health care
It is for this reason that the World Health Organization (WHO), has identified five key elements to achieving this goal:[11] Behind these elements lies a series of basic principles identified in the Alma Ata Declaration that should be formulated in national policies in order to launch and sustain PHC as part of a comprehensive health system and in coordination with other sectors:[3] In sum, PHC recognizes that healthcare is not a short-lived intervention, but an ongoing process of improving people's lives and alleviating the underlying socioeconomic conditions that contribute to poor health.
[12] The Alma-Ata declaration proposed PHC (Primary Health Care) goals but faced global criticism for being vague, costly, and unattainable.
It was based on a paper by Julia Walsh and Kenneth S. Warren entitled "Selective Primary Health Care, an Interim Strategy for Disease Control in Developing Countries".
One of the foremost examples of SPHC is "GOBI" (growth monitoring, oral rehydration, breastfeeding, and immunization),[6] focusing on combating the main diseases in developing nations.
These strategies focus on severe population health problems in certain developing countries, where a few diseases are responsible for high rates of infant and child mortality.
In particular, in the future the majority of older people will be living in developing countries that are often the least prepared to confront the challenges of rapidly ageing societies, including high risk of having at least one chronic non-communicable disease, such as diabetes and osteoporosis[16] and conditions like hearing loss.
Considering that 360 million people across the world live with disabling hearing loss, including 32 million children and nearly 180 million older adults, and that chronic ear diseases, such as chronic suppurative otitis media, can lead to hearing loss and may cause life-threatening complications, the seventieth World Health Assembly on May 31, 2017 signed the resolution WHA70.13 (Agenda item 15.8) urging member states to integrate strategies for ear and hearing care within the framework of their primary health care systems, under the umbrella of universal health coverage.
Barefoot Doctors were a diverse array of village health workers who lived in rural areas and received basic healthcare training.
The Barefoot Doctors had close community ties, were relatively low-cost, and perhaps most importantly they encouraged self-reliance through advocating prevention and hygiene practices.
[6] The program experienced a massive expansion of rural medical services in China, with the number of Barefoot Doctors increasing dramatically between the early 1960s and the Cultural Revolution (1964-1976).
Although many countries were keen on the idea of primary healthcare after the Alma Ata conference, the Declaration itself was criticized for being too “idealistic” and “having an unrealistic time table”.
