Reorienting health systems towards Primary Health Care in South Asia
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This series, “Primary health care in South Asia”, is an effort to provide region-specific, evidence-based insights for reorienting health systems towards PHC. Led by regional thinkers, this series draws lessons from five countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This is the last paper in the series that outlines points for future action. We call for action in three areas. First, the changing context in the region, with respect to epidemiological shifts, urbanisation, and privatisation, presents an important opportunity to appraise existing policies on PHC and reformulate them to meet the evolving needs of communities. Second, reorienting health systems towards PHC requires concrete efforts on three pillars-integrated services, multi-sectoral collaboration, and community empowerment. This paper collates nine action points that cut across these three pillars. These action points encompass contextualising policies on PHC, scaling up innovations, allocating adequate financial resources, strengthening the governance function of health ministries, establishing meaningful public-private engagements, using digital health tools, reorganising service delivery, enabling effective change–management processes, and encouraging practice-oriented research. Finally, we call for more research-policy-practice networks on PHC in South Asia that can generate evidence, bolster advocacy, and provide spaces for cross-learning.
Date Issued
2024-09-01
Date Acceptance
2024-08-01
Citation
The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia, 2024, 28
ISSN
2772-3682
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia
Volume
28
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39301269
PII: S2772-3682(24)00116-1
Subjects
Alma Ata
Astana
Bangladesh
Call to action
Chronic diseases
Community health workers
Comprehensive primary health care
COVERAGE
Health Care Sciences & Services
Health policy
Health systems
India
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
Nepal
Pakistan
Primary Health Care
Private sector
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Science & Technology
South Asia
Sri Lanka
Urban
Way forward
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
100466
Date Publish Online
2024-08-20