ABSTRACT
A PRIMARY CARE-LED NHS? Primary health care, and general practice, are in a period of unprecedented change. The Alma Ata declaration, published by the World Health Organization, described primary health care as 'the first level of contact between people and the national health system', and as the entitlement of all citizens.1 Lee2 sees primary health care as a set of activities, a process, a level of care and as a strategy for organizing the health care system as a whole. Starfield3 describes it as: 'first contact, continuous, comprehensive and co-ordinated care provided to populations undifferentiated by gender, disease or organ system'.
