The place of primary health care in medical education in the United Kingdom: a survey

Abstract

Primary health care has been held to be the foundation of any rational health system. The principle was fully endorsed by the Alma-Ata Conference in 1978, and has become the main policy of the World Health Organization. Important implications are involved for the education and training of doctors and other health care professions. An enquiry was conducted by personal interviews of those most responsible for the teaching of primary health care in the United Kingdom, to enquire about the status of primary health care in the curricula of U.K. medical schools, and about the standing of general practice. The enquiry also explored the degree of awareness among medical educators about the Alma-Ata Declaration. The leading representatives of primary health care in the medical schools made it clear that the teaching of primary health care varied greatly in the importance accorded to it and the resources made available for it by medical schools. Almost half the respondents were unaware of the support for greater emphasis on primary health care that had been specified in the Alma-Ata Declaration.