[EQ] WHO Assembly Resolution on: Primary health care, including health system strengthening

Primary health care, including health system strengthening

 

SIXTY-SECOND WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY -  WHA62.12 - Agenda item 12.4

22 May 2009

Available online as PDF file at: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/A62/A62_R12-en.pdf

“…..Strongly reaffirming the values and principles of primary health care, including equity, solidarity, social justice, universal access to services, multisectoral action, decentralization and community participation as the basis for strengthening health systems….”

URGES Member States:

(1) to ensure political commitment at all levels to the values and principles of the Declaration of Alma-Ata, keep the issue of strengthening health systems based on the primary health care approach high on the international political agenda, and take advantage, as appropriate, of health-related partnerships and initiatives relating to this issue, particularly to support achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals;

(2) to accelerate action towards universal access to primary health care by developing comprehensive health services and by developing national equitable, efficient and sustainable financing mechanisms, mindful of the need to ensure social protection and protect health budgets in the context of the current international financial crisis;

(3) to put people at the centre of health care by adopting, as appropriate, delivery models focused on the local and district levels that provide comprehensive primary health care services, including health promotion, disease prevention, curative care and palliative care, that are integrated and coordinated according to needs, while ensuring effective referral system;

(4) to promote active participation by all people, and re-emphasize the empowering of communities, especially women, in the processes of developing and implementing policy and improving health and health care, in order to support the renewal of primary health care;

(5) to train and retain adequate numbers of health workers, with appropriate skill mix, including primary health care nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and family physicians, able to work in a multidisciplinary context, in cooperation with non-professional community health workers in order to respond effectively to people’s health needs;

(6) to encourage that vertical programmes, including disease-specific programmes, are developed, integrated and implemented in the context of integrated primary health care;

(7) to improve access to appropriate medicines, health products and technologies, all of which are required to support primary health care;

(8) to develop and strengthen health information and surveillance systems, relating to primary health care in order to facilitate evidence-based policies and programmes and their evaluation;

(9) to strengthen health ministries, enabling them to provide inclusive, transparent and accountable leadership of the health sector and to facilitate multisectoral action as part of primary health care;….”

 

 

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