Table 2.

Primary health care based policy responses to NCDs.

Challenges	Primary Health Care Approach	Possible Policy Response
Children, adolescents, women of reproductive age, young and older adults are increasingly affected by risk factors for NCDs	Focus on prevention, early intervention and a life-course approach	Policies that incorporates health and social needs at all stages of the life course, including childhood, adulthood and later life and integrate into existing programmes
Critical shortages of health-care workforce, especially in rural and remote regions	CHWs as a vital component of PHC	Task shifting to CHWs, such as training FCHVs in NCD management
Caring for people with chronic care issues and multi-morbidity is challenging	Focus on engaging informal caregivers as care partners	Policies that engage, educate or support informal caregivers
Considerable inadequacies in the delivery of PHC services	Focus on sustaining, developing and strengthening PHC services	Integrating screening for NCDs into routine care using simplified guidelines; Strengthening PEN program
Weak health information systems	Focus on strengthening the evidence base for the prevention and control of NCDs	Strengthening surveillance and establishing robust integrated information management system
Financial barriers to access healthcare	A focus on UHC	Strengthening social health protection mechanism, such as health insurance and ensuring NCD services available at PHC system