10.K. Round table: Investing in Primary Health Care to strengthen resilience in crises: lessons from Ukraine
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: A strong Primary Health Care (PHC) system is vital to supporting emergency preparedness and health care resilience. As the point of care closest to patients, PHC healthcare workers are best placed to understand the needs of their local population, to identify vulnerable groups, to ensure continuity of essential services, and to preserve patients’ trust in these services. However, supporting PHC and its workforce in times of crisis - whether conflict, pandemic, or natural disaster - is challenging. Reduction in health care workforce numbers, changing health care demands, insecurity, and fluctuations in available financial resources all threaten the PHC service availability and the capacity of its workforce. There is limited evidence of the impact of crises on PHC and the PHC workforce and strategies to prepare for or respond to this impact. In particular, little is known about how to best sustain PHC financing, workforce capacity and skills, and consistent access to PHC services in crises. Jointly hosted by WHO Ukraine Country Office and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the aim of this workshop is to identify important lessons for strengthening the resilience of PHC in Europe to crises. Drawing on the experience of Ukraine, this workshop will explore the impact of Russia's full-scale invasion on PHC and the PHC workforce, the health reforms that supported PHC resilience to this crisis, and the challenges that remain in this area. Specifically, it will focus on the impact of the crisis on the health care needs of patients and access to PHC in Ukraine, on the resources available to PHC workers and on PHC financing. Presentations will share health system responses that have been implemented or proposed, inviting debate and discussion of their role in strengthening PHC resilience. The workshop will then provide a forum for discussing the relevance of Ukraine's experience for strengthening PHC and PHC workforce preparedness and resilience in other European countries, identifying concrete lessons for the region. Key messages • The workshop will explore the significant impacts that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has had on PHC services and workforce and strategies that have been implemented to address this impact. • The workshop will provide an opportunity to consider the relevance of Ukraine’s experience for strengthening PHC services and workforce resilience in Europe.
Authors: Organised by: WHO Ukraine, LSHTM (UK), Chair persons: Jarno Habicht (Ukraine)
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,181
OpenAlex ID: W7101394807
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