IPCHS

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

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Sept. 27, 2023 Global

Creating an enabling environment, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Reorienting the model of care, Strengthening governance and accountability, Engaging and empowering people and communities

A vision for primary health care in the 21st century

In 1978 world leaders, international organizations and health authorities gathered in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, and released the Declaration of Alma-Ata on Primary Health Care, which remains a landmark document in the history of global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration established a standard of public commitment to making community-driven, quality health care accessible, both physically and financially, for all. This was the forerunner of the Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000 that was pursued by WHO and its partners for the rest of the 20th century, and of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: “Ensure healthy lives and ...

Sept. 22, 2023 Europe

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

Health systems in crisis: Countering shockwaves and fatigue (Eurohealth)

This Eurohealth special issue provides a pre-reader for the 2023 European Health Forum Gastein, a key platform for health policy exchange, bringing together stakeholders and decision-makers from the public and private sector, civil society, and science and academia. The 2023 conference will facilitate discussion on how to ride out the current shockwaves and explore how crises can help catalyse the development of new approaches to health system problems.

Contents includes:

Sept. 21, 2023 Global

Progressing primary health care: a series of country case studies

The 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata (1) was revolutionary. Many countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other organizations had been pursuing strategies to provide primary health care (PHC) for years (2). However, Alma-Ata made PHC central to health care policy and practice. In a world in which resources had long been focused on “vertical” health programmes, expanding the focus of health care was a novel approach for the global health community. Since this declaration, efforts to improve health have increasingly been framed in terms of building, strengthening or realigning the systems that contribute ...

Sept. 21, 2023 Global

Primary health care measurement framework and indicators: monitoring health systems through a primary health care lens

To continuously strengthen PHC, countries must be able to assess how decisions, actions and investments are addressing the broader determinants of health while improving service coverage, financial risk protection, and ultimately the health of individuals and populations. As countries strive to reorient their health systems around the principles of PHC, this document responds to Member States’ request in resolution WHA72.2 on primary health care for guidance to assess, track and monitor PHC performance to accelerate progress towards UHC and the health-related SDGs. The indicators and monitoring and evaluation conceptual framework presented in this document are based on and support ...

Sept. 19, 2023 Global

Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global monitoring report

The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (SDG target 3.8) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has increased.

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Sept. 14, 2023 Africa South-East Asia Eastern Mediterranean Western Pacific

Primary health care case studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Overview

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has showcased the importance of primary health care (PHC) and revealed health system strengths as well as weaknesses.

As a defining global and national policy priority, COVID-19 has had enormous impacts on country health systems, often unveiling inequities as well as governance, stewardship and leadership challenges. COVID-19 demonstrates that trust between communities and service providers, and effective collaboration across sectors, are essential elements of successful public health responses and primary care continuity.

In 2015, the Alliance commissioned Primary Health Care Systems (PRIMASYS) case studies in twenty low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Building on these ...

Sept. 12, 2023 Europe

Towards an equitable people-centred health system for Spain

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on Spain and its devastating effects on health and health care have been felt across various domains, including the social, economic, and political spheres. Among the sectors hardest hit were the health system and its dedicated health professionals. Consequently, there has been a growing recognition among the Spanish population that the health system, often regarded as an efficient and high-quality system, requires strengthening and modernisation.

Spain held its national elections on July 23, 2023, in a context of high polarisation of public opinion and absence of clear majorities of parties in the ...

Aug. 7, 2023 Europe

Integrated care in action – primary care. Understanding how integrated care systems are redesigning primary care services

This case study shows how integrated care systems are redesigning primary care services.

Aug. 3, 2023 Americas

Integrated care and the behavioral health primary care provider

Primary care remains the main setting for delivery of psychiatric care. An integrated approach improves the ability of primary care providers (PCPs) to care for complex patients with behavioral health needs. This article describes integrated care and how physician associates/assistants can gain additional training to become behavioral health specialists.

July 31, 2023 Global

The Integrated Care Workforce: What does it Need? Who does it Take?

The health and care workforce was under pressure long before the pandemic due to the development of new technologies, recurring policy reforms and dwindling ressources. It has though taken the outcry in the aftermath of COVID-19 for researchers and policymakers to realise that something fundamental needs to change. In the integrated care literature and in this journal, the fact that integrated care implementation does not work without the involvement and support of the workforce has been a recurring theme, but also little heeded. Concepts like the Quadruple Aim or the WHO European Framework for Action for integrated health services delivery ...