ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the story of comprehensive primary health care. This is a broad understanding of health, agreed in the 1978 World Health Organization Alma Ata Declaration of Health for All. Some maintain that comprehensive primary health care has failed, because its target year passed by without sufficient progress, and its vision has been high jacked by a selective, targeted approach that produces linear structures that prevent comprehensive primary health care. There are clearly people who care deeply that a health service is created where participation, equity and inter-sectoral collaboration are natural everyday preoccupations. The greater are held the principles of primary health care, including equity, the better is the health of a nation. The ambition to realise the ambitions of Alma Ata led to the 'Healthy City 2000' movement. In 1988, Liverpool became one of the first cities dedicated to promoting these ideals.
