'Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever'--the 2008 World Health Report.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) marked, in September 2008, 30 years since the Declaration of Alma-Ata proposed primary health care as guidelines for health development: a set of values, principles and approaches aimed to embrace a holistic view of health, go well beyond the exclusively medical model and raise the level of health in deprived populations. In all countries, it should offer 'fairness in access to health care and efficiency in the way resources are used'.

With this report entitled Primary Health Care--Now More Than Ever, WHO starts a global conversation on the effectiveness of primary health care as a way of reorienting national health systems. WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, wrote in The Lancet recently: "Above all, primary health care offer(s) a way to organize the full range of health care, from households to hospitals, with prevention equally important as cure, and with resources invested rationally in the different levels of care."

The Report proposes that countries make health systems and health development decisions guided by four broad, interlinked policy directions: universal coverage; people-centred services; healthy public policies; and leadership.

Download the full report at who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf