Abstract

PIP: This article explains how the concept of health for all developed within the context of the history of the World Health Organization (WHO). By the early 1970s a new idea was taking shape in WHO. Medical services were failing to reach vast numbers. Health would have to emerge from the people themselves. In the heat of discussion the new strategy was clarified and given a name--primary health care (PHC). An ambitious target was set for it--no less than health for all by the year 2000. It was decided that the community itself had to be involved in planning and implementing its own health care. A new type of health worker was called for, chosen by the people from among themselves and responsible to the community but supported by the entire health system. In virtually all countries, the emphasis on curative care would have to be balanced by an equal emphasis on prevention. Almost 90% of WHO's Member States were prepared to share with one another detailed information about the problems facing their health systems. Industrial countries were beginning to realize that sophisticated medical technology was no guarantee of good health and that health for all through PHC offered an alternative. Millions of health workers have been trained, extending services to low-income groups that had no access to modern health care. Among health professionals, lack of understanding of the PHC concept and insufficient concern for social equity remain the principal constraints. Another problem is that expenditure on health care tends to be viewed as a drain on scarce resources rather than as an investment in the nation's future. The mommentum of health for all can be sustained only by governments implementing at home the policies they have collectively agreed on at The World Health Assembly in Geneva.