A World Rural Health Conference was held in 2018 that brought together various policymakers, healthcare professionals, and academicians from India and other countries to present experiences and learnings that can strengthen primary care in rural India. Following are the takeaways from the event:
– A family-centered approach that integrates preventive and promotive care, delivered by health providers who are trained to manage different conditions from respiratory, cardiovascular, and safe childbirth.
– Primary care systems should focus on continued care rather than delivery of fragmented episodic acute care.
– To reduce unnecessary referrals, PHCs must retain gatekeeping functions. Patients should first visit PHCs and only when referred by PHCs, should they be sent to secondary and tertiary centers.
– A socially accountable medical school that directs education, research, and services towards prioritizing concerns of the rural communities they serve. A socially accountable rural medical school helped to address the health concerns of the population in North Ontario.