Hospitals and primary health care.

This paper addresses the pre-eminent role, as has finally been acknowledged internationally, Primary Health Care plays with regards to meeting the health needs of the population of nations at the community level. The paper argues that for this primary health care strategy to be successfully implemented and bring about an improvement in the general level of health of people in communities cooperative, co-ordinated and organised action must be taken by all those in the health care field, public and Social Services and the people themselves at the community level. The paper acknowledges that although hospitals have traditionally been accorded a leadership position in the total health care effort, in their current make-up, however, they are ill-equipped and unfocused to undertake alone the task which will be involved in implementing the proposed PHC strategy. The major areas of commitment demanded by Primary Health Care programmes and the core functions for hospitals in support of PHC are identified. By these, the author argues that the insular character of hospitals, which has always proved a major stumbling block to the effective and successful implementation of PHC programmes, will begin to undergo a welcomed and overdue process of change.