The literature on the history of family medicine as an academic discipline locates its beginning with the establishment of two faculties linked to the Royal College of General Practice in 1958. However, the history of Community Oriented Primary Care documents, how the Kark’s moved from Pholela in KwaZulu-Natal, were involved with the establishment of the Natal Medical School in Durban. As part of this a Department of Social, Preventative and Family Medicine was established in 1956 with Dr Sidney Kark as its first Head of Department. The South African Academy of Family Practice and Primary Care established in 1980 explicitly orientated itself in relation to public healthcare (PHC). We need to re-claim the history of Community Oriented Primary Care as part of the history of family medicine and proudly trace our current ethos and values to the seminal work of the Kark’s.
In South Africa, general practitioners have been the backbone for providing generalist care to the majority of the population. Historically, the medical officers in clinics and hospitals, the private practitioners in general practice all over the country as well as the mission doctors essentially providing the core of health care services in many rural areas predated generalist care as a distinct academic discipline.
The literature on the development of family medicine as an academic discipline in South Africa mostly refers to an address by Dr Basil Jaffe,
The body of literature around community-oriented primary care (COPC) documents how Sidney and Emily Kark together with Edward Jali (a health educational practitioner) and others are credited for their pioneering work at Pholela in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1940s and how this contributed to the establishment of primary health care (PHC) (see, for instance, Williams and Reid,
When the SAAFP was formed in 1980, it included PHC as a core aspect of family medicine,
We need to reclaim our history, not only to acknowledge the work of those before us but also to proudly trace our current ethos and values to their roots. It links our current efforts to the seminal work conducted at the Pholela Health Centre, the birthplace of COPC.
The author declares that no competing interests exist.
The author declares that he is the sole author of this article.
This article received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.