Marketing and primary health care: An approach to planning in a Tongan village

Expensive health facilities have failed to meet most health needs. This perceived failure has been interpreted as failure of scientific medicine with subsequent alienation of health facilities. It is therefore necessary to develop primary health care (PHC) programmes shaped around the life patterns of the population it serves. This paper discusses the similarity between marketing concept and providing PHC, and as it was applied to development planning in a village of the Kingdom of Tonga. The issues, circumstances, and approaches discussed, reflect what is desirable from the villagers' viewpoint. In the absence of epidemiological data, there was greater reliance on the villagers' observations to rank priorities. The process of arriving at the final objectives used the marketing approach to provide direction and guideline for discussions of the problems. Marketing can be of assistance in the search for more acceptable and accessible health service and will help to focus on the communities' perspective of their total needs.