COVID-19 has highlighted the weakness of the health care systems but has also emphasized the importance of placing PHC at the core of health systems. Strengthening PHC and achieving UHC are both important current priorities for WHO.
 
In the context of the 75 World Health Assembly, held last May in Geneva, Dr Jim Campbell, Director of WHO's Health Workforce Department, and Dr Shannon Barkley, WHO Technical Officer for Primary Health Care, speak during a live social media broadcast to answer questions from the general public about primary health care (PHC) and universal health coverage (UHC) concerns.
 
During this session, Dr Barkley and Dr Campbell define PHC and UHC, the how and the goal, and underline the importance for all people to have access to the safe, effective and affordable health services they need, when and where they need them, ensuring no one is left behind.  But does everybody need to have the same access to care? Do all countries need to invest the same in PHC? Learn about the role of health insurance in achieving UHC; the roadmap launched by WHO to strengthen the national health workforce capacity; or hear about some of the achievements made so far in PHC and UHC that´s also a matter of celebration.  

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Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in refugee settings.

Partnering with the United Nations Refugee Agency, Primary Care International, a social enterprise founded by Red Whale, a British medical education provider, has provided guidance and Training of Trainer courses on NCDs to 649 health professionals working in primary care to improve NCD care for refugee populations.

This paper shares the experience of adapting clinical guidance and training primary healthcare workers in managing NCDs in refugee settings to highlight the challenges involved and offers future considerations for similar programmes.
 

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The European Forum for Primary Care Annual Conference will take place next September in beautiful Ghent (Belgium). The pre-conference will start on Sunday 25 September and will be followed by the main conference on Monday and Tuesday.

The theme this year will be Integrated Community Care: a new opportunity for Primary Care, and specific sub-themes will include health in all policies and social integration as a driver for preventive care, participation of citizens to achieve an effective integrated care model, and closing the gap in the access to health and care for all to leave no one behind.

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The current pandemic has underlined the need to strengthen health systems to protect the population.

Monitoring and assessing the performance of health systems is useful to properly understand how systems function. The Health Systems Performance Assessment Framework for Universal Health Coverage supports monitoring of health system performance, with a focus on detailed conceptual links between health system functions and overall system goals.

The framework will help policy-makers analyse impacts of poor performance and identity areas to prioritise and direct resources towards in order to effectively focus their health system strengthening efforts to improve outcomes.

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