Strengthening Primary Healthcare for NCDs, Mental Health, and UHC

Distinguished delegates,

Primary health care is the foundation of resilient, equitable health systems and essential to delivering universal health coverage and an effective response to NCDs and mental health across the life course.

Yet health promotion and NCDs, the leading cause of death, remain poorly integrated into PHC systems, We urge Member States:

• To integrate NCD prevention and care into PHC and health benefit packages, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care, ensuring effective referral pathways across levels of care and allied health services.
• To implement the target set in the 2025 Political Declaration on NCDs and mental health, to ensure 80% of PHC facilities in all countries have affordable availability of WHOrecommended essential medicines and basic technologies for NCDs and mental health conditions.
• To ensure that PHC-oriented reforms are guided by current and projected disease burdens, including NCDs and informed by disaggregated data.
• To ensure a people-centred approach that embeds community-based services and the workforce with meaningful engagement of communities and people living with NCDs in designing and implementing PHC services.
• To increase financing and reduce financial barriers at the PHC level, avoiding out-ofpocket expenses.

The road to the 2027 UHC HLM should be used to elevate PHC as a foundation and secure stronger commitments for integrated NCD prevention and care within PHC systems.

This statement is coordinated by:

• The NCD Alliance

And supported by

• The Global Surgery Umbrella (GSU)
• Women in Global Health
• HelpAge International
• Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)
• World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRFI)
• International Diabetes Federation
• World Heart Federation
• International Association for Suicide Prevention
• The International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP)
• World Stroke Organization
• International Federation on Ageing
• Vital Strategies
• Multiple Sclerosis International Federation
• World Federation of Chiropractic
• Union for International Cancer Control
• International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism
• DITTA - the Global Diagnostic Imaging, Healthcare IT, and Radiation Therapy Trade Association