Provincial, territorial and federal health departments have partnered to establish the National Primary Health Care Awareness Strategy (NPHCAS). The NPHCAS intends to educate Canadians on the importance of primary health care and its role in sustaining Canada’s health care system.
What is primary health care?
“A movement that is critical to reshaping the way health care services are accessed and delivered. Primary health care’s fundamental goal is to improve our health care system by maximizing its efficiencies and resources, and by improving its sustainability.” (The Globe and Mail information supplement)
Though it differs among regions, primary health care encompasses:
- Prevention and treatment of common diseases/injuries
- Management of chronic conditions
- Treatment of acute and episodic illness
- Efficiency and coordination
- Access
- Individuals playing an active role in their own health care
- Health promotion
Primary health care is based on four pillars:
1. Teams
Continuity of care is improved when health care providers work in teams. Canadians are a part of the team and are empowered to make decisions about their own health.
2. Information
Coordinated health information is shared between providers and ensures quality of care, efficiency, and better access to information.
3. Access
Canadians benefit from improved access to services, advice and information as needed.
4. Healthy living
A holistic approach to wellness that aids in the prevention of illness and injury and the management of chronic illness.
The World Health Organization and primary health care
Primary health care is not a new concept. In 1978, the World Health Organization held an international conference on primary health care and subsequently created the Declaration of Alma-Ata. The Declaration helped to define the term:
“Primary health care is 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 to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part both of the country's health system, of which it is the central function and main focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process.”
More about primary health care
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