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The Pholela Health Centre - the origins of community-oriented primary health care (COPC)


S. M. Tollman

Abstract

The health centre practice pioneered by Sidney and Emily Kark and their colleagues at Pholela during the 1940s was a forerunner of and direct contributor to what later emerged as 'the primary health care approach'. This article gives a detailed account of the context, work and methodologies used at the Pholela Health Centre, emphasising the development of concepts that are now well recognised and described as community-oriented primary health care (COPC). COPC remains highly relevant to health service development in South Africa today.


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eISSN: 2078-5135
print ISSN: 0256-9574