Primary healthcare – definition by Alma-Ata conference

The international conference on primary healthcare held at Alma Ata (USSR) in September 1978, stressed the importance of primary healthcare. It defined primary healthcare as:

‘Primary healthcare is essential healthcare made universally accessible to individuals and acceptable by them, through their full participation and at a cost the community and country can afford.’

The Alma Ata conference proposed that primary healthcare will play a major role in the attainment of Health for All by 2000 AD. The concept of primary healthcare is equally valid for both developed and developing countries, although it may take different forms in them.