Preface

To live a long, healthy life, individuals should receive uninterrupted health care starting from the womb until the end of life. Health care is a necessity and a right. Health services, which were defined in 1920 and focused on the necessity of reaching everyone, were defined as Primary Health Care Services in the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration. The public health approach has come to the fore in primary health care. Today, the development and promotion of health, prevention of illness, early diagnosis and early treatment of diseases, access to multi-faceted rehabilitation services that enable those with chronic illnesses to live active lives in society, and palliative care are possible with a multi-sectoral health service approach. Primary care is important in terms of being a service delivery model and opinion, as well as being the first point of contact for an individual to reach health services. At this point, it is important to be able to start and follow the health service delivery that the individual needs with a holistic approach.

Forty years after Alma-Ata, the "World Conference on Primary Health Care from Alma-Ata to Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals" held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in October 2018 has, in a sense, updated the concept of primary health care. It is clear that the environment, peace, security, and socioeconomic status are important for health. Environmental factors such as wars, violence, epidemics, natural disasters, and the climate crisis cause premature deaths all over the world. Health should be universal and sustainable. This requires policymaking, knowledge, technology, human resources, and funding.

After 2019, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has been included in primary health services. In cases where distance is a critical factor, as in the definition from the World Health Organization (WHO), health care delivery by health professionals using information and communication technologies has become widespread in the world for preventing diseases and injuries, conducting research, evaluating and improving health, and diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries.

This book presents examples from various countries about the provision of health services at the primary care level. Chapters examine the role of professionals in primary healthcare services and how they can work to improve the health of individuals and communities.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the esteemed chapter authors and everyone who contributed to the book.

> **Ayşe Emel Önal, MD,** Specialist and Professor of Public Health, Department of Public Health, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

Section 1

What is Primary Health Care?
