ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization's utopian definition of health, as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely an absence of disease' is a distant and elusive mirage. There are many ways in which non-health and disease can be measured and recorded; all have weaknesses and drawbacks because of inevitable difficulties of definition, precision, validity and reliability. Good care has to be 'the art of the possible'. Its limitations are as important as our optimistic expectations of the latest medical technologies. It is also necessary to accept the 'insoluble equation of health care', which dictates that 'wants will always be greater than proposed needs, which will always be greater than available resources'. Primary health care is an essential keystone in all health services. It has to be recognized as such, since the rest of the health system depends on its quality and effectiveness.
