In the 1970s and 1980s, discussion around what and how health systems should be implemented sparked a heated debate. In 1978, the Alma-Ata declared that ‘Health for All’ should be the international goal of countries through Primary Health care. Unfortunately, the Alma-Ata failed, likely due to not specifying where how it was to be funded and the inability to hold countries to their commitment. After this, the concept of selective primary health care emerged, a way to package health services in a cost effective manner. Although both of these approaches aim to improve health, neither of them specifically mention emergency care, and where it belongs in the context of these frameworks and life.
Ziad Obermeyer conducted a study in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) about the emergency care available. In “Rethinking emergency Care is key to ‘Health for All,’” he summarized his findings. He shed light on the fact that people in LMICs still get pneumonia, diarrhea, heart attacks and asthma. Something I think most people don’t realize is that studies consistently put emergency conditions at the top of list of causes of death and disability worldwide. The number 1 cause of death in LMIC is Ischaemic heart disease at 11.5% of deaths in LMIC, while HIV/AIDS was the 4th cause of death at 6.1% (Razzak & Arthur). Despite this, LMICs tend to have a lack of emergent care facilities, leading to an average of 10 times the caseloads of primary care doctors in the region. I believe that because of this, emergency health care should be a part of any country’s health system, even if it wasn’t in the plans of health care in the 1970s and 80s.
In the Alma-Ata Declaration, statement V says that all people should be at a level of health “that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life” by 2000. It then explained that the key to this target is primary health care. While I do agree that primary health care is necessary to track and prevent diseases and should be implemented around the globe, Obermeyer states that 10-15% of deaths in Nigeria occur in emergency care facilities. Most of these people are young and generally healthy, so they lose the most productive years of their lives. If primary health care and emergency health care both support preserving a productive, healthy life, then why didn’t Alma-Ata include emergent care?
Included in the principles of selective primary health care is the idea the main disease problems of poor countries can be solved through low-cost technical inventions, as Cueto explains. In this is the philosophy that “international agencies had to do their best with finite resources and short-lived political opportunities” (12). Though emergent health care was not originally discussed when it came to selective primary health care, I believe that these philosophies are very similar to what Obermeyer observed. In higher income countries, a small portion of the national medical expenditures helped emergency care providers focus on improving quality and training. As many providers in emergent care facilities in LMICs don’t have specific training, select LMICs have benefited from this training too.
The end of the Alma-Ata and the Cueto article on selective primary health care both focus on cost-effectiveness and the reallocation of resources. Investing in emergency care could relieve the burden of primary care doctors, allowing them to better serve their community. Emergency care could also alleviate some of the death and disability in LMICs, allowing for a more productive workforce, possibly boosting the country’s economy. Though the Obermeyer article doesn’t suggest a specific intervention, it does mention the opportunity for low cost, quality education of providers. This, along with a possible creation or renovation of an emergency care facility, could be perceived at a cost-effective strategy. As such, emergency health care would be a valuable addition to health care around the world, even if it’s philosophy is the only thing that might line up with other health care strategies.
- Should emergency care systems be thought of as separate of primary health care and selective health care, or are they already integrated into this framework? Are emergency care systems necessary if a strong public health care system is in place?
- Would implementing an emergency care facility in rural areas be feasible due to the lack of access to them and the number of providers that would be needed? How could communities be involved in the implementation of an emergency care facility or practices?
- Would you consider emergency care a magic bullet?