Primary Healthcare

Question 1

What are the levels of care?

Answer 1

1. Primary health care
2. Secondary health care
3. Tertiary health care

Question 2

What is primary healthcare?

Answer 2

• The “first” level of contact between the individual and the health system.
• Essential health care (PHC) is provided, often preventive services.
• A majority of prevailing health problems can be satisfactorily managed.
• The closest to the people.
• Provided by the community health workers and primary health centers
• Can be provided through technology

Question 3

What is secondary care?

Answer 3

• More complex problems are dealt with.
• Comprises curative, rehabilitative and some preventive services
• Provided by the district hospitals (public and private)
• The 1st referral level

Question 4

What is tertiary care?

Answer 4

• Provide specialist care
• Provided by regional/central level institution
• Provide education and training programs

Question 5

Describe primary health care?

Answer 5

1. Socially appropriate
2. universally accessible
3. scientifically sound
4. first level care provided by a suitably trained workforce
5. supported by integrated referral systems and gives priority to those in need
6. maximises community and
   individual self-reliance and participation
7. involves collaboration with other sectors

Question 5

Key components of primary health care?

Answer 5

1. health promotion
2. illness prevention
3. care of the sick
4. advocacy
5. community development

Question 6

Definition of primary health care?

Answer 6

Essential health care based on practical,
scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the
community through their full participation and at a cost that community and the country can afford

Question 7

Primary health care is based on which principles?

Answer 7

1. Social equity
2. Nation-wide coverage
3. Self-reliance
4. Inter-sectoral coordination
5. People’s involvement in the planning and implementation of health programs

Question 8

Core activities of primary health care?

Answer 8

1. Education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods
   of preventing and controlling them
2. Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition
3. An adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation
4. Maternal and child health care, including family planning
5. Immunization against the major infectious diseases
6. Prevention and control of locally endemic diseases
7. Appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries
8. Basic laboratory services and provision of essential drugs.
9. Training of health guides, health workers and health assistants.
10. Referral services
11. Rehabilitative services, including Mental health, Physical handicaps,
    and Health and social care of the elderly

Question 9

What are the WHO strategies of PHC?

Answer 9

1. Reducing excess mortality of poor marginalized populations:
   PHC must ensure access to health services for the most
   disadvantaged populations, and focus on interventions which
   will directly impact on the major causes of mortality, morbidity
   and disability for those populations.
2. Reducing the leading risk factors to human health:
   PHC, through its preventative and health promotion roles,
   must address those known risk factors, which are the major
   determinants of health outcomes for local populations.
3. Developing Sustainable Health Systems:
   PHC as a component of health systems must develop in
   ways, which are financially sustainable, supported by
   political leaders, and supported by the populations served
4. Developing an enabling policy and institutional
   environment:
   PHC policy must be integrated with other policy domains,
   and play its part in the pursuit of wider social, economic,
   environmental and development policy.

Question 10

What are the basic requirements for sound PHC?

Answer 10

*Appropriateness
*Availability
*Adequacy
*Accessibility
*Acceptability
*Affordability
*Assessability
*Accountability
*Completeness
*Comprehensiveness
*Continuity

Question 11

Appropriateness of PHC?

Answer 11

• Whether the service is needed at all in relation to essential human
  needs, priorities and policies.
• The service has to be properly selected and carried out by trained
  personnel in the proper way.

Question 12

Adequacy of PHC?

Answer 12

• The service proportionate to requirement
• Sufficient volume of care to meet the need and demand of a community

Question 13

Affordability of PHC?

Answer 13

The cost should be within the means and resources of the individual and the country

Question 14

Accessibility of PHC?

Answer 14

• Reachable, convenient services
• Geographic, economic, cultural accessibility

Question 15

Acceptability of PHC?

Answer 15

Acceptability of care depends on a variety of factors, including
1. satisfactory communication between health care providers and the
patients
2. whether the patients trust this care
3. whether the patients believe in the confidentiality and privacy of information
shared with the providers

Question 16

Availability of PHC?

Answer 16

Availability of medical care means that care can be obtained whenever people need it

Question 17

Assessability of PHC?

Answer 17

Assessebility means that medical care can be readily evaluated

Question 18

Accountability of PHC?

Answer 18

Accountability implies the feasibility of regular review of financial
records by certified public accountants.

Question 19

Completeness of PHC?

Answer 19

Completeness of care requires adequate attention to all aspects of a medical problem, including
1. prevention
2. early detection
3. diagnosis
4. treatment
5. follow up measures
6. rehabilitation

Question 20

Comprehensiveness of PHC?

Answer 20

Comprehensiveness of care means that care is provided for all types of health problems

Question 21

Continuity of PHC?

Answer 21

Continuity of care requires that the management of a patient’s care
over time be coordinated among providers

Question 22

To summarize PHC?

Answer 22

Primary care is an approach that:
- Focuses on the person not the disease, considers all determinants of health
- Integrates care when there is more than one problem
- Uses resources to narrow differences
- Forms the basis for other levels of health systems
- Addresses most important problems in the community by providing preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services
- Organizes deployment of resources aiming at promoting and maintaining health.