By the time you read this, our National Family Practitioners Conference will be imminent, on 13–14 August, and I hope to see many of you there (
Since my last communication we have completed the survey of our members on their needs for continuing professional development. The survey was answered by 215 members and interestingly most were from primary care (52%) and exclusively in the private sector (49%).
In terms of practice-related issues the majority wanted help with improving the quality of their care, responding to the needs of the population served by their practice and ensuring that they practice in an ethical and professional manner. Handling telephonic consultations and the new
In terms of clinical-practice-related issues the majority wanted help with assessing and managing conditions in both adults and children, particularly diabetes. Other topics highlighted by the majority were skills in health promotion and disease prevention and emergencies in primary care. How to motivate patients towards a healthier lifestyle (e.g. tobacco smoking, healthy eating and physical activity) and wellness were specifically mentioned and how to ensure you are up to date with the latest protocols on cardiopulmonary resuscitation, particularly in children.
The South African Academy of Family Physicians (SAAFPs) is now in the process of preparing three initial short courses to respond to these learning needs. The courses will be designed and developed by Prof. Selma Smith and Dr Zelra Malan. The first two will focus on quality improvement for people with diabetes and ethico-legal issues in telehealth. I can also remind you that we already have a short on-line course on brief behaviour change counselling that meets many of the needs for skills in health promotion in the consultation (
I am delighted to report that Dr Sheena Mathew, who is in private practice in Cape Town, has agreed to coordinate our advocacy for family physicians in the private sector. She is sending out a survey to see which of our members are in private practice and would like to be part of a private sector forum. We need to speak as a collective and understand the concerns and viewpoints of our members in private practice as we engage with the industry.
The SAAFP has also been active in commenting on the ministerial task team’s report on human resources for health in South Africa (
Finally, we have reached a new national consensus on the learning outcomes for training family physicians, and these are published in the SA Family Practice Journal (Mash R, Steinberg H, Naidoo, M. Updated programmatic learning outcomes for the training of family physicians in South Africa. S Afr Fam Pract. 2021;63(1), a5342.