TY - JOUR T1 - Integrating public health and primary care: the response of six Asia–Pacific countries to the COVID-19 pandemic JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 326 LP - 329 DO - 10.3399/bjgp21X716417 VL - 71 IS - 708 AU - Sairat Noknoy AU - Ryuki Kassai AU - Neil Sharma AU - Leilanie Nicodemus AU - Carlos Canhota AU - Felicity Goodyear-Smith Y1 - 2021/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/71/708/326.abstract N2 - Strong primary health care (PHC) is the cornerstone for universal health coverage (UHC), reinforced by the Astana Declaration of 20181 as the best means to achieve an inclusive, effective, and efficient approach to enhance people’s physical and mental health and social wellbeing.PHC includes both public health (PH) and primary care (PC). A highly performing PC system provides access to first-contact, patient-centred care that is comprehensive, and continuous over time while coordinating services.2 The World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on the primary health care draft operational framework, approved by the WHO Executive Board in January 2020, notes that a key lever is ‘Models of care that promote high-quality, people-centred primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services throughout the course of life.’3Effective PHC therefore requires a coherent integration of PH and PC services, which involves a number of actions that include comprehensive PC services to a defined population, improved communication between PH and PC providers, knowledge sharing between individual- and population-focused health services, and strengthened and coordinated PC and PH surveillance functions.4The year 2020 saw the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now more than ever PH and PC measures are needed to form the foundation of the crisis response and provide continued health care to all those suffering the ongoing direct and indirect effects of this health crisis. There is a need for adaptation, flexibility, and innovation, with task shifting in the workforce to mount the response, and a move to telehealth where possible for provision of non-COVID-19 care.5We report on the PHC approaches of six different countries in the Asia–Pacific region (Fiji, Japan, Macao (a Special Administrative Region of China), New Zealand (NZ), Philippines, and Thailand) and describe the degree to which their PH … ER -