Governance and leadership includes “ensuring strategic policy frameworks exist and are combined with effective oversight, coalition-building, regulation, attention to system-design, and accountability” (WHO). This strategy includes PHC Policies, Quality Management Infrastructure, and Social Accountability.
Health financing refers to how resources are raised, pooled and allocated or spent to ensure that each person has access to health services of good quality without financial hardship. Health financing impacts the entire health system’s performance, including the accessibility, quality, and efficiency of primary health care.
Adjustment to population health needs includes routine collection of information about population health status and needs, appropriate analysis and use of this information to set and implement priorities, and continual learning and adaptation based on emerging evidence and data.
Drugs and supplies are essential elements of all functioning health systems. Making sure facilities have the right drugs and supplies at the right time and that patients can access affordable products when needed is imperative to delivering high-quality primary health care.
Ensuring that all populations have timely, geographic access to care requires sufficient facility infrastructure. Facility infrastructure captures the physical availability and physical quality of facilities, including facility density and distribution, facility design, facility amenities, and safety equipment and precautions.
Information systems refers to systems used for collecting, processing, storing, and transferring data and information that is used for planning, managing, and delivering high-quality health services. Well-functioning health information systems yield high-quality and comprehensive data and information.
A country’s ability to meet the goal of universal health coverage will require a competent, motivated, and equitably distributed primary health care (PHC) workforce capable of meeting existing and emerging community and population health needs.
The “Funds” strategy addresses the availability and management of funds at health facilities to meet the recurrent and fixed costs associated with delivering health services. Facility managers’ ability to budget, manage, and track funds at the facility level can impact health care providers’ ability to be responsive to changing disease burdens and patient needs.
Effective primary health care systems integrate active outreach and engagement with their empaneled populations in care delivery.
Effectively run facilities should include multidisciplinary teams, routine collection and use of information systems, and the capabilities of managers to oversee, support, and enforce processes.
Primary heath care services should be financially and geographically accessible at convenient times and with minimal waiting times.
Availability of effective PHC services includes the presence of competent, motivated providers at a health facility or in a community when patients seek care.
High-quality primary health care systems consistently deliver services that are trusted and valued by the people they serve and improve health outcomes for all. High-quality primary health care fulfills five essential functions: first contact accessibility, continuity, comprehensiveness, coordination, and person-centeredness.