Intended for healthcare professionals

Primary Healthcare

The Alma Ata declaration of 1978 was a pivotal moment in public health, stating primary healthcare would be essential to obtaining the goal of “Health for All” by the year 2000. That vision proved to be a mirage, yet a renewed commitment by WHO and the United Nations to universal health coverage means that 40 years later, the approach championed by the Alma Ata declaration remains an enlightened and forward thinking blueprint for countries striving to achieve health for all.

In support of these principles and to further the debate, this special collection brings together content on the progress and future of primary healthcare.

Articles from The BMJ

Editorials
• Alma Ata and primary healthcare: back to the future
Zulfiqar Bhutta, Rifat Atun, Navjoyt Ladher, and Kamran Abbasi

• The extricable links between health, wealth, and profits
Gavin Yamey, Devi Sridhar, and Kamran Abbasi

• Health workers are vital to sustainable development goals and universal health coverage
Lara Fairall and Eric Bateman

Alma Ata and the role of primary care

Analysis
• Training sufficient and adequate general practitioners for universal health coverage in China
Gabriel Leung and colleagues

• The unfulfilled potential of primary care in Europe
Trish Greenhalgh, Luke Allen, and colleagues

• Valuing health as development: going beyond gross domestic product
Victoria Y Fan, David E Bloom, Osondu Ogbuoji, Klaus Prettner, and Gavin Yamey

• Building resilient health systems: a proposal for a resilience index
Margaret E Kruk and colleagues

• Emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats in South Asia: status, vulnerability, preparedness, and outlook
Ramanan Laxminarayan and colleagues

• Empowering frontline providers to deliver universal primary healthcare using the Practical Approach to Care Kit: A critical commentary
Lara Fairall, Ruth Cornick, and Eric Bateman

Features
• China’s plan for 500,000 new GPs
Flynn Murphy

Opinion
• Alma Ata, Astana and beyond—patients and communities as the core of universal primary healthcare
Anya de Iongh and colleagues

Articles from our specialist journals

• Socioeconomic inequalities in child vaccination in low/middle-income countries: what accounts for the differences? (2018)
Mohammad Hajizadeh

• Infectious disease outbreaks: how online clinical decision support could help (2018)
Kieran Walsh

• Risk factors and risk factor cascades for communicable disease outbreaks in complex humanitarian emergencies: a qualitative systematic review (2018)
Charlotte Christiane Hammer and colleagues

• Prevalence and factors associated with the use of antibiotics in non-bloody diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa (2018)
Asa Auta and colleagues

• Productive disruption: opportunities and challenges for innovation in infectious disease surveillance (2017)
Caroline O. Buckee and colleagues

• Evaluation of a programme for ‘Rapid Assessment of Febrile Travelers’ (RAFT): a clinic-based quality improvement initiative (2016)
Farah Jazuli and colleagues

• Implementing One Health as an integrated approach to health in Rwanda (2016)
Thierry Nyatany and colleagues