Promoting health through primary care: challenges in taking a strategic approach

Abstract

A strategic approach to health promotion in primary care is more than the aggregate of individual activities within a practice setting, or providing health checks in 'health promotion' clinics. It implies a shared practice view of priorities for improving the health of the practice population. To develop a strategy, staff will need networks and skills which may be unfamiliar. This has implications for the working relationship between primary care and community health services, local authorities and the voluntary sector. Challenges to a coherent strategy arise from the isolation of health promotion initiatives in primary care from those of the district health authority, and the way in which the population uses general practice. Health promotion initiatives at every level of the NHS should be evaluated but there are recognised problems in undertaking these evalua tions. A multidisciplinary working group of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine has identified the need for: better local links between primary care and other agencies, research at regional and national level, and training for primary care teams.