Primary Health Care the heart of every health system. How do we get there?

A ten-part seminar series, run by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, providing an overview of the key features and functions of Primary Health Care (PHC), the potential of PHC in all health systems and its role in achieving universal health coverage. The sessions draw on examples across different settings.

In this final session in the series on “Primary Health Care: The heart of every health system” a panel of cross-country experts will reflect on their key takeaways from the series and consider what more needs to happen to support countries to place PHC at the heart of their health system.

If you would like to submit a question to our panel please submit these here. 

Speakers

• Lakshmi Balaji is a Global Health and International Development leader, and until recently was Chief of PHC and Health Systems Strengthening at UNICEF Headquarters.  
• Dina Balabanova is a Professor of Health Systems ...

An assertive, practical, and substantive agenda to catalyse meaningful change

The Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care combines a shared vision with practical guidance on how to align health financing with overall reform strategies that place primary care service delivery at the core. The Commission reinforces key messages that WHO has put forward on health financing reforms to enable progress towards universal health coverage. It then extends these by application to primary care as a critical service delivery element for the progressive realisation of UHC.

WHO's guidance on health financing is crystallised into a framework for regular country assessment to inform policy dialogue. The alignment of the Commission with this guidance is clear, as reflected in the table. While the decision to limit the operational definition of primary health care to service delivery platforms was made for the purposes of the Commission, certain key financing issues merit further attention. We point to these towards the end ...