Academy to revive tradition of family doctors

Concerned about disappearance of traditional concept of family doctors, Academy of Family Physicians of India (AFPI) has started a campaign to prepare and train doctors capable of providing comprehensive package of health services at doorstep.

President Raman Kumar said that the Academy of Family Physicians of India has prepared more than 1,000 doctors who are committed to provide their services in the field of family medicine and primary healthcare.

According to Dr Kumar, with a view to promoting community-based healthcare delivery system and ensuring availability of multi-skilled and competent medical doctors at patient’s doorstep, the AFPI has started nation-wide campaign to prepare and train doctors capable of providing comprehensive package of health services.

“As the traditional old family doctors concept have started to disappear from society, people are often forced to visit crowded public hospitals for their basic medical needs. With healthcare costs rapidly spiralling up, there has been a growing discomfort among people of India. In spite of the availability of the best technologies, element of trust and personalised care is missing somewhere. Through our campaign, we try to revive the traditional concept of family doctors to provide quality medical facilities close to patient’s homes,” added Dr Kumar.

To give boost to family medicine and primary healthcare in country, doctors from across the country were in national capital to attend a conference on “family medicine and primary care”.

Citing a government report, Dr Kumar said that in India we are producing only 200 qualified family medicine practitioners while the need for such doctors has been estimated at around 15,000 per year.

“In order to meet this shortfall, the AFPI is engaging with young doctors and recently qualified medical graduate across the country. As of now, thousands of doctors have expressed their willingness to adopt family medicine and primary care as their chosen area of profession and career,” he said, adding: “These doctors actively network through social media sites” which is the need of the hour as digital technology is changing doctor patient relationship.