Governance: Perspectives of public administration, health administration, and primary care

Primary care governance is a concrete manifestation of health governance and public governance. This discussion article explores the concepts and concerns of governance at different levels and fields from three perspectives: public management, health management, and primary health care. During the last three decades, governance has been talked in two different directions. One is to focus on the positioning and interrelationship of government, market, and network; the other is to focus on the management, accountability, rule of law, transparency, and performance control of the public sector. WHO defines governance as ensuring that a strategic policy framework is proposed and combined with effective oversight, coalition building, governance, and attention to system design and accountability. The 2018 Astana Declaration reaffirmed the commitment to primary health care as the “cornerstone” of achieving universal health coverage. Chinese scholars proposed the “Expert Consensus on Primary Health Governance” in 2024. Countries around the world have seen a lot of research efforts on primary care governance. The author suggests China engaging more in-depth research in this area.