Primary Health Care

Primary health care is the accessible, community-based foundation of a health system and usually provides people's first contact with organised health services. It combines health promotion, disease prevention, basic treatment, rehabilitation and palliative support, while coordinating care across higher levels. It is broader than merely treating minor illness at a primary-level facility.

Core functions

Primary health care addresses most common health needs near where people live, making care timely, continuous and affordable.

• It provides health promotion and disease prevention through health education, immunisation, screening, nutrition support and sanitation-related action.
• It offers basic diagnosis, treatment, maternal and child health services, essential medicines and follow-up for communicable and non-communicable diseases.
• It maintains continuity of care across the life course and supports rehabilitation, geriatric care and palliative care.
• Its community orientation enables early detection of outbreaks, local health planning and action on social and environmental determinants of health.

Community-based mental health services

Primary care integrates mental health with general health services, allowing support to be delivered locally rather than relying only on specialised institutions.

• Community outreach and health education can improve mental health awareness, reduce stigma and encourage timely help-seeking.
• Frontline and primary-care workers can support early identification, basic assessment, counselling, treatment where appropriate and regular follow-up.
• Local delivery improves treatment adherence and helps involve families and communities in rehabilitation and social support.
• Primary facilities can recognise severe or complex conditions, provide continuing care after specialist treatment and use the referral system when higher-level intervention is required.

Referral system and India's health architecture

Primary care manages common and uncomplicated conditions, while secondary care provides specialist and hospital services and tertiary care handles highly specialised or complex cases.

• Counter-referral enables patients returning from hospitals to receive medicines, monitoring and rehabilitation near their homes.
• Effective referral reduces avoidable congestion and costs at higher facilities, but requires reliable transport, records, diagnostics and adequately staffed hospitals.
• In rural India, Sub-Centres and Primary Health Centres form the principal primary-level network, while Community Health Centres function as referral institutions with specialist services.
• The National Health Policy, 2017 prioritises comprehensive primary care and proposes allocating at least two-thirds of government health expenditure to primary care.
• A strong primary tier advances equity and reduces unnecessary demand for expensive hospital care through prevention and early treatment.