Primary Health Care

Abstract

Since the publication of Promoting Better Health in 1987, primary health care has steadily moved to the centre of the NHS’s political stage. A succession of policy initiatives have combined to expand the responsibilities of primary health care, enhance its status visà-vis secondary care and increase its share of Health Service funding. In the course of these developments, NHS consumers have been given more primary health care rights with a consequent rise in their expectations regarding the nature and quality of the service they should receive. As with other areas of Health Service activity, the ability of the state to manufacture fresh primary care demand has considerably exceeded the public resources at its disposal to meet that demand.