Take healthcare 'back to basics'
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 14:24
Ailing health systems world over would be better served by going "back to basics", World Health Organisation says
Ailing health systems the world over would be better served by going "back to the basics" of primary healthcare, an influential report has said.
The World Health Report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that the health status of different populations has been left "dangerously out of balance".
WHO says the life expectancy gap between the poorest and richest countries is now at 40 years, with government spending on individual citizens' ranging from $20 to $6,000.
Every year 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line because of healthcare costs, while half of the 136 million women who give birth this year will received no medical assistance whatsoever.
"The World Health Report sets out a way to tackle inequities and inefficiencies in health care, and its recommendations need to be heeded," said WHO director general Margaret Chan at the launch of the report in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
"A world that is greatly out of balance in matters of health is neither stable nor secure."
WHO wants a return to primary healthcare, an approach formally launched 30 years ago at the Alma-Ata international conference; the first time health equity was put on the international political agenda.
When countries at the same level of economic development are compared, those where healthcare is organised around the tenets of primary health care produce a higher level of heath for the same investment, WHO said.
In calling for a return to primary health care – which includes health services that play a central role in the local community; GPs, pharmacists, dentists and midwives - WHO argues that its values, principles and approaches are more relevant now than ever before.
Several findings support this conclusion. As the report notes, inequalities in health outcomes and access to care are much greater today than they were in 1978.
WHO is also advocating a greater use of preventative measures, which it believes could reduce the global burden of disease by 70 per cent.
"We are, in effect, encouraging countries to go back to the basics," explained Ms Chan.
"Thirty years of well-monitored experience tell us what works and where we need to head, in rich and poor countries alike."