Primary health care

Primary health care, often abbreviated as "PHC", has been defined 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. It is through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination".^[1] In other words, PHC is an approach to health beyond the traditional health care system that focuses on health equity-producing social policy.^[2][3] PHC includes all areas that play a role in health, such as access to health services, environment and lifestyle.^[4]
This ideal model of health care was adopted in the declaration of the International Conference on Primary Health Care held in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan in 1978 (known as the "Alma Ata Declaration"), and became a core concept of the World Health Organization's goal of Health for all.^[5] The Alma-Ata Conference mobilized a "Primary Health Care movement" of professionals and institutions, governments and civil society organizations, researchers and grassroots organizations that undertook to tackle the "politically, socially and economically unacceptable" health inequalities in all countries. There were many factors that inspired PHC; a prominent example is the Barefoot doctors of China.^[4][6][7]