This landscape review of primary care services in India documents the state of primary care delivery and highlights a handful of initiatives toward a future system design. The discussion focuses on four pillars: service delivery (with a focus on networks), financing, community engagement, and governance.

Changes in India’s demography have revealed large gaps in the country’s ability to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare and to improve health outcomes. There is a growing consensus to prioritize primary healthcare as the foundation for health reforms. Primary care broadly encompasses preventive, promotive, curative, and rehabilitative care for both acute and chronic illness, and it can vary in scope according to local need. Initiatives also focus on prevention and community centered care that will act as a hub for hospital and specialist care, pooling the resources of insurance companies to improve access to and equity of care for all citizens, and improvements in system oversight and governance.

This report explores India’s current healthcare system to highlight gaps that can be filled by restructuring it with primary care as its foundation.