Abstract
Early health policies of developing countries were mainly hospital-based. Doctors and other health professionals were scarce and unevenly distributed, and needed a base from which to operate. Morbidity and mortality statistics make it obvious that these early policies have not and cannot raise health status because the poor economic setting cannot sustain a health policy that is essentially hospital-based and, therefore, expensive. The Primary Health Care approach should provide most of the solution to our health management problems. But the real meaning and the role of Community Health, which provides the tools for the practice of Primary Health Care, appear not fully understood, even by medical practitioners. This supposition was confirmed by the results of a survey conducted in Benin City, Nigeria, between April 1 and June 30, 1995. The teaching of Community Health should, therefore, be restructured and intensified in view of the poor perception of the specialty by both medical students and doctors.
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