BACKGROUND: The Alma-Ata Declaration was a big step in the development of primary care, defining the main tasks and populations' expectation. Celebrating the 40th year's anniversary is a good opportunity to make an analysis. Development of primary care was not parallel in the Eastern and Western part of Europe. AIM: To provide an overview on the societal and economic situation, structural and financial changes of healthcare systems in the former 'Soviet bloc' countries, to present an analysis of the primary healthcare (PHC) provision and to find relationships between economic development and epidemiological changes of the respective countries. METHOD: Epidemiological data, healthcare expenditures and structure, and financing schemes were compared; systematic literature search was performed. RESULTS: Visible improvements in population health, in the national economic condition, structural changes in healthcare and more focus to primary care were experienced everywhere. Higher life expectancies with high inter-country variation were observed in the former 'Soviet bloc' countries, although it could not be clearly linked to the development of healthcare system. PHC provision improved while structural changes were rarely initiated, often only as a project or model initiation. Single-handed practices are yet predominant. The gate-keeping system is usually weak; there were no effective initiatives to improve the education of nurses and to widen their competences. Migrations of workforce to Western countries become a real threat for the Central-East European countries. CONCLUSION: Lack of coordination between practices and interdisciplinary cooperation were recognized as the main barriers for further improvement in the structure.

• MeSH
• dějiny 20. století MeSH
• dějiny 21. století MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• Evropská unie MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• primární zdravotní péče dějiny   organizace a řízení   statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• rodinné ošetřovatelství dějiny   organizace a řízení   statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• rozvojové země MeSH
• zdravotnický personál organizace a řízení   statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny 20. století MeSH
• dějiny 21. století MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• srovnávací studie MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH
• SSSR MeSH
• východní Evropa MeSH

• MeSH
• dějiny MeSH
• duševní poruchy ošetřování   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• rodinné ošetřovatelství dějiny   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH