WHO’s Free 90-Minute Course Helps People Understand Primary Health Care Reform

Called 'The Primary Health Care Approach: A Short Course', the programme is available through the WHO Academy online learning platform and takes around 90 minutes to complete.

Getting the right health care should not depend on where someone lives or whether they can afford the bill, but that promise remains out of reach for many people. The World Health Organization has launched a free online course to help people understand how primary health care can make health systems more responsive to the communities they serve, supporting access to essential services without financial hardship.

Called 'The Primary Health Care Approach: A Short Course', the programme is available through the WHO Academy online learning platform and takes around 90 minutes to complete. Its five self-paced modules offer an accessible introduction to an approach that puts people and communities at the centre of decisions about health, with lessons designed to connect broad commitments to everyday practice.

Making Sense of Primary Health Care

Nearly 50 years of global commitment to primary health care have not produced consistent implementation, and confusion about its meaning remains a barrier to progress. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has described it as one of the most misunderstood concepts in public health, underlining the need for a clearer shared understanding of what it involves and how it works.

Primary health care is a whole-of-society approach to achieving universal health coverage, bringing the needs of people and communities into the way health systems are organized. Dr Kalipso Chalkidou, Director of WHO's Department of Performance, Financing and Delivery, said strong agreement among WHO Member States on strengthening these systems creates an opportunity to turn political commitment into improvements in people's health and the performance of health services.

Five Modules Connect Ideas With Practice

Learners explore why primary health care matters, its three core components and the strategic and operational levers that can help strengthen it. The course covers how to guide changes towards PHC-oriented health systems through political-economy analysis and compassionate leadership, encouraging participants to consider the context in which decisions are made and the people affected by them.

Videos, country examples and linked resources help participants relate the lessons to their own responsibilities and local circumstances. The short course draws on WHO's "Strengthening Primary Health Care Leadership: Global Capacity Building Course", launched in 2024, and was developed in response to participant feedback and strong demand for a more concise, accessible introduction.

A Shared Responsibility With Global Interest

The course is intended for a broad audience, reflecting WHO's message that putting primary health care into practice involves people in clinics, classrooms, communities, meeting rooms and workplaces. More than 3,000 participants from over 140 countries joined during its first few months, a response that Dr Chalkidou described as evidence of the interest and commitment among people working to translate the approach into action.

Learners who finish the programme can receive a WHO Academy Award of Completion recognizing the knowledge they have gained and share it with their networks. The course is currently available in English, with other language versions being explored, giving people an opportunity to build a common understanding of how health systems can better serve those who depend on them.