Abstract
Throughout the twentieth century, the profound changes that have taken place in Medicine can only be wholly explained if observed from a historical perspective, for they have always occurred in response to external influences, some scientific and technological, others of a social nature. Modern Family Medicine is one of the many new disciplines that have developed during medical history, and we critically discuss the last 40 years of primary health care in Portugal, which started in 1971, long before the Alma-Ata Declaration (1978). Along the way, in 2005, the Primary Health Care Reform emerges in Portugal, along with the new family health facilities, which until September 2019, attended about 94 % of Portuguese citizens, i.e., 9,5 million people. At the end of this course, in solidarity and voluntarily, this Reform inspired another one in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2009. Finally, we present the challenges pointed out in the 2018 Astana Declaration, among them, the issue of the workforce in primary health care as an essential factor for the performance and sustainability of health systems.
Key words
Primary health care; Family Medicine; Universal health coverage
Source: National Institute of Statistics (INE), Portugal.