Investment in family medicine to improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Family physicians (FPs), as educators, capacity builders and clinical governance leaders of primary care (PC) teams, work to make them more effective and responsive to the needs of their patients. Various strategies are required to raise the profile of Family Medicine (FM) to ensure stronger representation in health sector planning and policy development for advocacy on behalf of the communities they serve. An illustration is given of the need for FP leaders to become equal partners in the National Surgical, Obstetric and Anaesthesia Planning process to ensure safer surgery at district hospitals and to address unmet surgical needs. Integrating FM teaching throughout undergraduate medical programmes familiarises graduates with FM as a possible career choice. Collaboration with professional FP associations such as in Botswana, Kenya and Zambia has helped to define and promote the discipline of FM, increasing public and professional awareness of the specialty’s value. Promoting development of an FP scope of practice as a collaborative exercise between academic FPs and national associations assists in differentiating the roles of FPs versus non-specialist generalists. The new generation of young FPs has played a significant role in marketing FM globally, using social media platforms to support each other and to share information and best practices for managing themselves and their patients. Positioning multidisciplinary PC teams at the centre of health systems, with strong leadership from FPs, integrated people-centred care and evidence-based practices, could catalyse the intensity of change needed for more equitable, cost-effective and sustainable healthcare in Africa.