The proper emphasis on primary care in basic medical education.

The Alma Ata Declaration 'Health for All by the Year 2000' lays heavy emphasis on the development of competent primary care services. The World Health Organization does not see different sorts of country, developing or developed, as having the same health problems nor as achieving the same level of health in terms of the amelioration of these problems by the year 2000. In this paper a conceptual model of a rational health service is presented, the shortfalls from it are examined, and whether they reflect deficiencies in basic medical education is considered.