Primary healthcare vital

PRIMARY healthcare is key to solving the health challenges facing Papua New Guinea.
The message to our leaders by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to invest in primary healthcare as the smartest first step towards universal health coverage, also known as “health for all”.
Primary healthcare is about caring for people and helping them improve their health, rather than treating a single disease or condition.
It includes a range of health services, such as screening and treatment for common diseases, preventative care like vaccination and health information, and treatment for common, non-serious ailments like colds. It also covers rehabilitation and care at the end of life.
Primary healthcare means care closer to home, and intervening early to prevent many illnesses from becoming serious.
Strong primary healthcare reduces demand on hospitals. It includes community-based solutions to tackle issues like mental health.
A robust primary healthcare system also works with other sectors to create healthier environments and prevent injuries and illness.
The healthcare service delivery is provided by a combination of government, private facilities and church facilities – the majority of which are located in urban and is funded by a combination of government tax revenues, donors, and the user.
Today, many people cannot access the health services they need.
This could be because services are too far away, they don’t know when or where to seek care, or they fear stigma and discrimination.
A report by the Pacific Medical Students Association – Healthcare Overview: Papua New Guinea in January 2017 says PNG has a low number of healthcare physicians, with just one doctor per 17,068 of the population, and these doctors are poorly distributed geographically.
Despite 85 per cent of the population living rurally, the majority of doctors work at the national specialist hospital or nearby regional public hospitals, with just 51 physicians working outside the capital of Port Moresby.
PNG’s healthcare system is outlined in the National Health Plan 2011-20, which places an emphasis on the provision of basic care for the country’s poor and rural population.
While PNG is seeing rising rates of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and water-borne diseases such as cholera, it is also seeing rising non-communicable diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
This combination of typically developing-versus developed-country health issues makes providing the right kind of care to the right population even more complicated and costly.
Many of the challenges in healthcare provision are linked to obstacles in other sectors, such as transport, infrastructure, manufacturing, education and security.
The international community is contributing and playing its part to help PNG improve its healthcare delivery, facilities and services, but there is room for more activity, especially from the private sector.
As the free basic health care scheme becomes more established, the government will likely devise ways to further encourage more private sector participation beyond what is already on offer.
Whatever that it, primary health care should be accessible and authorities must ensure that everyone can obtain the care they need, when they need it, right in the heart of the community.
Progress is being made in countries in all regions of the world to improve on its primary health care including PNG.
But realistically, millions of people still have no access at all to healthcare and many more are forced to choose between healthcare and other daily expenses such as food, clothing and even a
home.
Yesterday, the world observed World Health Day which is a chance to celebrate health and remind the world that everyone across the world should have access to health care as and when in need.