It might surprise you to learn that the first Community Health Centres (CHCs) date back well before the modern era, to the early 20th century.
Early proponents of the Community Health Centre or “community-oriented primary care” approach drew inspiration from the 19th century perspectives and teachings of the Prussian physician and multi-disciplinarian, Dr. Rudolph Virchow, who famously stated that “medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale”. While there is no direct lineage from Virchow to the earliest Community Health Centres, the physicians, nurses and other actors who were responsible for the world’s first CHCs were undoubtedly inspired by Virchow’s insights on “social medicine”. ….more