Dear Members, Friends and Visitors,

The beginning of a new millennium offers reflections and brings great expectations for the population. In the area of health, it could not be different. In 2008, thirty years of the implementation of the Alma Alta Conference have gone by, it was held in Kazakhstan, former Soviet Union, and it counted with the participation of 134 countries.

This Conference synthesized discussions that established themselves around strategies that should be adopted by countries, in order to provide a better level of health for all, regardless of the different socioeconomic sources. Also, it presented broader proposals of approaches for the organization and resizing of available resources and it became important strategy which marked the paradigm for collective health, as well as for the establishment of an international health policy platform, recommending Primary Health Care (PHC) as a principle for all of the world's health systems.

The goal of "Health for all by the year 2000" was proposed at such conference and it became the mark for the redirection of health systems in the world, in the view of contemplating the more complex needs within a given social, political and economical context, as it reaffirms health as a fundamental right. It is then ratified that the protection and health of the peoples are essential to the ongoing economic and social development and they contribute to a better quality of life and for world peace.

The PHC is a set of health interventions in individual and collective spheres that involves: promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. It is developed through managerial, sanitary, democratic and participatory practices. It uses high complexity and low density technologies, which should solve more frequent and relevant health problems of populations. It is characterized by a form of organization of health services, a strategy to integrate all aspects of such services having as perspective individuals and families’ health needs.

As organizer of the system PHC presents itself as a broader strategy that can reorder all resources to meet the population's demands and representations, besides being the articulator of an integrated health system. Another relevant aspect is that it considers the subject in his uniqueness, complexity, and completeness and also in his social-cultural insertion and it aims for his health improvement, disease prevention and treatment as well as the reduction of harm and suffering that could compromise the opportunities for families to live healthily. Health promotion is, therefore, one of its guiding axes.

The World Family Organization (WFO) believes that this approach has as its value the search for a health system focused in emphasizing social fairness, joint responsibility among the population and public health services, solidarity and a broad concept of health. In its most developed form the PHC provides the access of individuals and families to the health system and to the local responsible for the organization of the care to individuals, their families and the population over time.

Each country has health systems with different operating arrangements, however, one can identify similar principles (attributes) characterizing the PHC: first contact (accessibility to the system), longitudinallity (regular delivery of care by the practitioners over time), integrality (meeting a set of more common needs of the population with the holding responsible of the provision of services in other parts of the system) and coordination (the continuity of the care, recognizing the need of following-up the population). Other attributes, derived from the earlier ones are as well important: focus on the person (not on the disease) and in the family, guidance for community and cultural competence (giving proper value to cultural aspects).

The WFO recognizes that, when these principles are present, it occurs a positive impact of the PHC on the population’s health, in the reaching of greater fairness, in the greater satisfaction of individuals and families, and lower costs to the health system, thus reaffirming the importance of health systems to organize themselves starting from the PHC.

The organization of systems by a comprehensive and inclusive PHC is possible in all countries. Now, more than ever, there is the opportunity to start investing on it and giving it its proper value, even with immense challenges, which appears in different ways among countries with different income levels. Currently there is greater recognition that the threats and opportunities in the field of health are shared throughout the world.

Thus, countries have in a concrete way the ability to start moving on towards the structuring of health systems so that, with a strong and effective PHC, families can enjoy the many benefits that it provides.

Best regards,

Prof. Dr. Alzira Guimarães
WFO Vice-President for Technical Activities