The far reach of primary health care

Imperial researchers have shown that more attention to primary health care could help to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges.

In 1978, the World Health Organization set out a plan for improving health and well-being around the world.

Its proposal, the Alma Ata declaration, called on governments and international organisations to back primary health care as a platform to improve lives.

Now, forty years on, researchers have revisited the WHO’s proposal, considering how primary care could help to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – a set of targets aimed at tackling global challenges linked to everything from healthcare and poverty, to climate change and food security.

In a review, published in a special edition of The Lancet this month, Dr Thomas Hone, Research Fellow at Imperial’s School of Public Health, highlights how primary care can help to address much more than health issues.