Primary Health Care: Open Access

Public Health and Primary Care

Fatima Baig

Author info »

Introduction

Public health and primary care must be integrated in order to provide health care to a larger population, especially in developing countries.

Primary care and public health have similar goals when it comes to disease control and community health promotion. Primary health workers used to be primarily concerned with the health of individuals, but they are now increasingly concerned with the health of the communities they serve [1]. Primary health agencies are principally focused on social or community health, and they are being encouraged to explore new ways to work together and build interactions with primary care. These cooperation and collaborations are not new rather have long history in some areas, like vaccinations and emergency preparedness [2]. Finding opportunities to collaborate together on collaborative ventures and taking time to share the milestones and results was an important part of developing the partnership over time. The importance of laying a basis of getting to know each other and cooperating was seen as critical prework for being project or problem ready. In present there is a need of hour for both Primary Health and Primary Care to strengthen and extending their integration to better community health and reachout of health services to the person at the distal end.

Integration of Public Health and Primary Care

In recent years, the United States and other countries have implemented joint responsibility for health outcomes, highlighting the need to prioritize relationship models. Several causes have been described as contributing to Primary Care and Public Health convergence, including less open health care markets, and Public Health practices that include the distribution or administration of individual health services, data and other information sharing. Reforming health care from a conventional safety net approach to integrated care involving both Primary Care and Public Health requires investments in information technologies, the

Integration of Primary Care and Public Health could enhance both sectors' capacity to carry out their missions and connect with other stakeholders to catalyze a collaborative, intersectoral movement toward improved public health. While local collaborations of this intensity would entail active and continuous engagement, integration of Primary Care and Public Health could enhance both sectors' capacity to carry out their missions and link with other stakeholders to catalyze a collaborative, intersectoral movement toward improved population health.

Integrating health-care sectors can be described in a variety of ways. Regardless of how integration is described, the literature seems to call for integrated infrastructure and financing, joint vision, purpose, and principles, convergence of priorities and objectives, leadership alignment, collaboration; evaluation, group involvement, collaborative data and research, qualitative factors, and creativity are all things that need to be considered [3]. While this literature comprehensively discusses models of engagement between PC and PH, more should be done to understand how all partners experience or prioritize certain facets at the local level, as well as the mechanisms or activities that can facilitate successful adoption

Conclusion

The time has come to reconsider how Primary Care and Public Health work together. Several recent studies suggest that fundamental and energizing aspects of relationships connect in dynamic ways, and that energizing aspects are more likely to be present in alliances that identify themselves as more involved [1-4].

References

1. 1. Prunuske, J., et al. The extent and methods of public health instruction in family medicine clerkships. Fam Med 46 (2014):544–548.
2. 2. Brandt, A. M., & Gardner, M. Antagonism and accommodation: Interpreting the relationship between public health and medicine in the United States during the 20th century. Am J Public Health 90 (2000):707– 715.
3. 3. Stevenson, R. M., et al. Integrating public health and primary care. Healthc Policy 3.1 (2007):e160–181. 4. Pratt, R., et al. Primary Care and Public Health Perspectives on Integration at the Local Level: A Multi- State Study. J American Board Fam Med 30.5 (2017):601-607.