WONCA News – April 2017
The latest WONCA News (April 2017) is accessible via the WONCA website, with lots of WONCA news, views and events.
Policy Bite: Maximising the role of primary care workforce
This month WONCA News had not one but two policy bites. We featured one last week; now “Meeting the demand for primary care: Maximising the role of primary care workforce”, which was written by Professor Amanda Howe and Dr Jamie Murdoch from the University of East Anglia in UK.
“The challenge for primary care services to negotiate tensions between meeting patients’ needs effectively and managing demand for care is a global problem. Rising life expectancy and improved options to help diagnosis and treatment (Office of National Statistics, 2016) mean that doctors both in community and hospital settings have to manage increasingly complex patients with multi-morbidities, who may take multiple medications and need ongoing management that requires greater input from the healthcare system.”
Read the full article at the WONCA website: http://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/News/PolicyBiteMaximisingtheroleofprimarycareworkforce.aspx
Featured Doctors: Co-Convenors of the WONCA SIG on Family Violence
Not content with two policy bites, this month WONCA News also had two featured doctors – the co-convenors of the WONCA Special Interest Group on Family Violence.
Professor Kelsey Hegartyis a Professor of Family Violence Prevention at the University of Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospital and has been a general practitioner in inner urban Melbourne for the last 20 years. She has recently taken over as the co-chair of the WONCA Special Interest Group on Family Violence.
Dr Hagit Dascal-Weichhendleris a full time clinician with a mixed population in Northern Israel, at Clalit Health Services Haifa and West Galilee District. Since 2001 she has also been the chairperson of the committee on Family Violence (FV) which provides training, educational materials counselling and support to staff on FV cases. As a teacher in the Haifa Department of Family Medicine she trains Family Medicine residents and medical students and has developed, and teaches, a mandatory semester course on FV for Residents, as well as an elective semester course for Medical Students.
WONCA Africa Montegut Scholar reports on Rio
In 2016 the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation (ABFM-F) awarded Dr Kenneth Yakubu the 2016 Montegut Scholarship for Africa. This enabled Kenneth to attend the WONCA World conference in Rio. Kenneth writes “Through the Montegut Scholarship award for Africa, I was offered the opportunity to be part of an enriching experience, one I will remember for a very long while. Indeed, I feel blessed. Thank you, ABFM-F”. Kenneth has written an excellent report which is reproduced in full on the WONCA website.
Montegut Scholarships – Asia Pacific and South Asia Regions
The Montegut Global Scholars Program (MGSP) was established by the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation (ABFM-F) in 2010. The MGSP was named in honour of Alain Montegut, a member of the Board of Directors of the ABFM from 2005-10 and WONCA North America Region President from 2007–10. His career has been devoted to developing high quality family medicine practice internationally, especially in underserved and/or undeveloped countries.
The Montegut Scholarships support the attendance of one family physician from each of the seven WONCA regions to attend their regional meeting. Several regions have already made their awards for this year, but Asia Pacific and South Asia Regions are still calling for nominations, with a closing date of 30th June.