The primary health care (PHC) approach provides an essential foundation for health
emergency and risk management, and for building community and country resilience.
The importance of this is not only reflected locally in preparing, responding to and
recovering from an emergency, as demonstrated in the Ebola virus disease outbreak
in West Africa; PHC is also vital to achieve global health security and support
resilient health systems as a foundation for universal health coverage. PHC has
three interrelated and synergistic pillars: (a) empowered people and communities;
(b) multisectoral policy and action for health; and (c) strong and integrated health
services, with good-quality primary care1 supported by essential public health
functions at the core. Through these three pillars, PHC promotes not only an effective
emergency response, but also a prepared and resilient system that can prevent,
withstand and recover from emergencies, while continuing to provide essential health
services throughout. There are many types of emergency: these include outbreaks,
natural disasters and conflicts, which are often acute but are sometimes decades
long and protracted. While the underlying causes of emergencies vary, the resultant
population displacement and health system destabilization have predictable health
consequences.
