According to the WHO, Primary Health Care covers majority of a person’s health needs throughout their life including prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. The PHC system in Sri Lanka consists of Community health services which focuses on maternal and childcare and the Curative services conducted by Divisional hospitals and Primary Medical Care Units. The current challenges faced by PHC system in Sri Lanka includes the growing number of chronic and non-communicable diseases and the increasing elderly care needs.
WHO estimates that at least half of the world’s people still lack full coverage of essential health services. This project will specifically target underserved communities’ access to PHC, and address selected gaps in core public health surveillance in line with the international health regulations (IHR).
This targets all
nine districts in the four provinces of Central, North Central, Sabaragamuwa,
and Uva with a special focus on the geographically, socially, and economically-
deprived populations. The beneficiary population of the project is
approximately 7 million which is 33% of the Sri Lanka population (21 million)
while the target population, identified using a vulnerability index, within the
four provinces, and are estimated to be approximately 2.4 million. This will
improve efficiency, equity, and responsiveness of the primary healthcare (PHC)
system based on the concept of providing universal access and continuum of care
to quality essential health services. The project pursues an equity perspective
in planning and delivering of essential primary health services.
The project is managed by a project management
unit (PMU) at the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine
(MOHNIM) and supported by four project implementation units at each of the four
provinces of Uva, Central, Sabaragamuwa and North Central. All relevant
stakeholders took part in the process. The identified and collected content
were incorporated into a comprehensive multi professional training package, aimed at the stakeholders of PHC with multiple modalities of delivery.
Please see attachment for Training Curriculum.
- Teacher: Rikaz Sheriff