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Harnessing the potential of the primary healthcare facilities in India to respond COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping evidence-based research synthesis
Abhishek Royal1, Marcelo Amaral Mali1, Vaibhav Kumar2, Indrani Alhad Wagh3, Shashi Bhushan4, Avishkar Nitin Mokal5, Kedar Mehta6, Sudip Bhattacharya7
1 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2 Department of Public Health Dentistry, TPCT'S Terna Dental College, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
3 Medical Data Analyst, Vasta Bioinformatics, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
4 Psychiatry Department, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, New Delhi, India
5 Private Dental Practitioner and Consulting Orthodontist, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
6 Department of Community Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Gotri, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
7 Department of Community Medicine, Himalayan Institute of Medical Science, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Vaibhav Kumar
Department of Public Health Dentistry, TPCT'S Terna Dental College, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1609_20
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COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented loss of human lives and sufferings across the world. It has resulted in the collapse of public health systems and economy across the globe. As most of the national health systems lack organized surveillance infrastructure, resources, and expertise to respond to a pandemic, most of the countries failed to mount an effective response to contain the spread of this virus initially. As primary healthcare (PHC) has better access to the community, the settings where PHC services are inadequate or weak, hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, thus overburdening, and wasting meager specialist resources. PHC interventions can manage mild to moderate cases (>80% of total cases) and their contacts, along with addressing the needs of general population while only severe cases may require specialized hospital care. As PHC interventions have huge potential to tackle this pandemic, strengthening and inclusion of PHC in pandemic response could play a significant role in relieving the workload on secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities and minimizing loss of lives and its short and long term socioeconomic consequences. This article explores the scope and importance of strengthening PHC in breaking the chain of the transmission of this infectious disease, building an adequate response to minimize its disastrous consequences and prevent future emerging and reemerging disease outbreaks, if any.
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