Departmental academic review

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DIRECTORATE

SELF-REVIEW REPORT 1995-2014 FOR

DEPARTMENTAL ACADEMIC REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

The Primary Health Care Directorate (PHCD) is an inter-disciplinary unit with a mission to promote the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach as the “lead theme” in the Faculty of Health Sciences, in order to equip our graduates to provide equitable and holistic care at all levels of the South African health care system.

The adoption of PHC as the foundation of national health policy and practice under the newly-elected democratic government in 1994 was recognized by the Faculty as the stimulus for change, in order to ensure that our graduates are equipped to meet the changing demands of the health system.

A policy on the PHC approach was adopted by a Special Faculty Assembly in August 1994, which committed the Faculty to the following set of principles with respect to teaching, research, and clinical service, and in its engagement with communities:
1. Displaying bio-psychosocial and cultural sensitivity towards the patient.

2. Practising health promotion at individual and community levels.

3. Promoting evidence-based health care.

4. Promoting equity and human rights in health care.

5. Treating patients at the appropriate level of care.

6. Promoting multi-professional health care.

7. Promoting broad intersectoral collaboration.

8. Encouraging communities to assert their rights and interests.

9. Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of health services.
What is Primary Health Care?
"Primary Health Care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination" (Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care, WHO-UNICEF, 1978).
PHC is therefore understood as an approach to health care that promotes the attainment by all people of a level of health that will permit them to live socially and economically productive lives. Health care using the PHC approach is essential, scientifically sound (evidence-based), ethical, accessible, equitable, affordable, and accountable to the community.
PHC is therefore not only primary medical or curative care, nor is it a package of low-cost medical interventions for the poor and marginalized. On the contrary, it calls for the integration of health services with the process of community development, a process that requires political commitment, intersectoral collaboration, and multidisciplinary teamwork for success.