Primary health care as the foundation for Salvadorian health system reform

Abstract

The Declaration of Alma-Ata on primary health care (PHC), issued 40 years ago, has become one of the foundations of El Salvador's health system reform, launched in 2010. The values, principles, and elements of PHC have been an essential piece in the design and implementation of the reform, aimed at achieving significant advances in health. Free services and the expansion of coverage, the organization of the levels of care, the encouragement of health promotion, and political will are identified as facilitating factors in the improvement of health indicators, a phenomenon that has not occurred in isolation but, rather, as part of a process of change involving other social programs that has helped to reduce poverty and inequality; this, in turn, has contributed to the improvement of health indicators. Health system reform must overcome its current challenges, such as its lack of legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the biologistical concept of “good medicine,” as well as negative aspects of management, such as an inadequate and unequal health budget, poor working conditions for health personnel, impersonal care, and poor-quality services. The progress of the reform will be determined by its capacity for reinvention and its ability to overcome the conflicts it has generated and identify the needs of health workers and citizens alike.