The role of district hospitals and the action in international medicine network

As the first-referral hospitals for the primary health care (PHC) services, district hospitals providing secondary health care (SHC) have a peculiar importance in the developing world. The World Health Organization has led the way in defining their functions and adopting the concept of the district health system linking PHC and SHC in a vital relationship. The author's personal experience in this area over many years in Nigeria is presented in this article. The need for postgraduate training programs to encourage physicians to pursue a career at the district level is becoming widely recognized as an extension of the discipline of general practice/family medicine.