Resources to get the job done: the sustainability of community-based health care.

For the CBHC model to succeed the resources to implement it must be adequate and reliable over a period that will allow delivery of high quality services (preventive promotive and curative) to which there is equal access. Sustainability requires more than adequate financial resources however. The sustainability of CBHC comprises two elements one micro because it relates to the application of a specific model and the other macro because a CBHC model can be reproduced in many places and become the basis for expansion. The micro element focuses on the human financial and physical (facilities) resources required over time to keep a particular CBHC model functioning well (as compared to merely surviving). The macro element involves scaling up current models and replicating them in a series of communities. The desired cumulative effect is that CBHC covers large segments of a population. (excerpt)