On the World Health Organization’s Neglect of the Role of Medical Doctors in Its Conception and Practice of Primary Health Care

Abstract

Primary health care (PHC) emerged in the early 1970s as WHO’s response to the failure of its basic health services approach. The Soviet Union succeeded in getting WHO’s governing bodies to agree to hold an international conference on PHC, a conference that was held in Alma-Ata, the capital of the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, in September 1978. In 1975, Dr. Halfdan Mahler, WHO’s charismatic director-general, introduced the goal of “health for all” (HFA) by the year 2000. Alma-Ata declared PHC as the key for achieving HFA. Although WHO had promoted the involvement of medical schools in community health, Mahler’s antimedical establishment rhetoric contributed to WHO ignoring the potential role that medical doctors could play in PHC and HFA.