PHC was not just a blueprint for organizing a public health system. It was a fundamental approach to health itself, which included key values: services to be delivered as close to the community as possible, in a system that the country could afford, in an integrated manner, with the participation of the community. Health was understood in its full social and economic dimensions and health care was understood as an essential part of what good governance should mean. These were optimistic times: the commitment to PHC and to “Health for All by the Year.
