Primary Health Care

A strong primary health care system is central to improving the health of all New Zealanders and reducing health inequalities between different groups.
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Challenges and Opportunities of Primary Care   

This HPF paper is not intended as an academic or factual document rather a rapid response to, and analysis of the primary care environment and its possible future. Drawing on a selection of expert knowledge, key documents within the sector and discussions with a number of Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) its intent is to provide the health promotion workforce with some perspective of where it may fit and a starting point for identifying where to focus its energy in changing times.  Written by Glenn Thomas, Primary Care 2010.

Declaration of Alma-Ata

The Alma-Ata Declaration is considered by many to be the founding framework for health promotion internationally.  It came from an International Conference on Primary Health Care, in Alma-Ata, USSR, 1978.
"The International Conference on Primary Health Care, meeting in Alma-Ata this twelfth day of September in the year Nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, expressing the need for urgent action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world community to protect and promote the health of all the people of the world, ..... " Primary Health Care Alma Ata  

A Guide to Developing Health Promotion Programmes in Primary Health Care Settings

Effective co-ordination of primary care beyond treatment and prevention services to include comprehensive disease prevention and health promotion is central to the success of the Primary Health Care Strategy. To achieve effective health promotion in a PHO, public health and primary care practitioners will need to work together.
The purpose of this guide is to assist PHOs and DHBs develop, assess and deliver health promotion programmes aimed at improving the health status of the population and reducing health inequalities. Developing Health Promotion Programmes

Public Health in a Primary Health Care Setting

Primary health care as described in the Primary Health Care Strategy (PHCS) is wider than the currently delivered general practice services. It includes some population-based services that are best delivered in a primary care setting. The new style of primary health care will require new skills and competencies and a degree of co-operation and co-ordination across the health sector not previously achieved. Exciting new opportunities exist to deliver services in an innovative way using a range of health professional skills.  Public Health in PHC

Te Uru Kahikatea in the primary health care setting

The public health workforce is not confined to public health ‘services’. Public health skills and experience (including the skills to deal with new and re-emerging diseases and mass casualty events) are required across the wider health sector, particularly in areas that have population health responsibilities like Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and GP practices.
The most urgent priority is to address the workforce development requirements arising from the Primary Health Care Strategy. Read more

The New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy

A strong primary health care system is central to improving the health of New Zealanders and, in particular, tackling inequalities in health.
This Strategy provides a clear direction for the future development of primary health care so that it can play this central role within the new health system. There is evidence available about the specific contribution primary health care can make to improved health outcomes which has informed the new direction. Primary Health Care strategy

The Ministry of Health Primary Health Care Website

A Primary Health Care Strategy site has been set up, with information for and about Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) Primary health care relates to the professional health care received in the community, usually from your GP or practice nurse. Primary health care covers a broad range of health and preventative services, including health education, counselling, disease prevention and screening. Primary Health Care website

What is 'Better, Sooner, More Convenient' Primary Health Care?

Better, Sooner, More Convenient Primary Health Care is the Government's initiative to deliver a more personalised primary health care system that provides services closer to home and makes Kiwis healthier.
Primary health care has a part to play in helping reduce acute demand pressure on hospitals by better managing chronic conditions and proactively supporting high need populations.
A package of services is proposed to make significant improvements. This includes multiple Integrated Family Health Centres, nurses acting as case managers for patients with chronic conditions, providing a wider range of care and support for patients and shifting some secondary care services to primary care. Better, Sooner, More Convenient

Improving Access to Primary Care for Māori and Pacific Peoples

A literature review commissioned by the Health Funding Authority 
December 2000
This document is a review of the most relevant literature on strategies that improve Māori and Pacific peoples’ access to primary health care services, commissioned by the former Health Funding Authority. It may help inform PHOs when planning services to improve access. Improving access

World Health Report 2008 - Primary Health Care - Now More than Ever

"Why a renewal of primary health care (PHC), and why now, more than ever? The immediate answer is the
palpable demand for it from Member States – not just from health professionals, but from the political arena as well.
Globalization is putting the social cohesion of many countries under stress, and health systems, as key constituents of the architecture of contemporary societies, are clearly not performing as well as they could and as they should.
People are increasingly impatient with the inability of health services to deliver levels of national coverage that meet stated demands and changing needs, and with their failure to provide services in ways that correspond to their expectations. Few would disagree that health systems need to respond better – and faster – to the challenges of a changing world. PHC can do that."  Now More Than Ever

WHO - Primary health care and the social determinants of health: essential and complementary approaches for reducing inequities in health

Increasing focus on health inequities has brought renewed attention to two related policy discourses ‑ primary health care and the social determinants of health. Both prioritise health equity and also promote a broad view of health, multisectoral action and the participation of empowered communities. Differences arise in the lens each applies to the health sector, with resultant tensions around their mutual ability to reform health systems and address the social determinants.  Read more

Pat Neuwelt
Chair of HPF Primary Health Care Reference Group