‘Revamp community medicine depts in medical colleges’

LAHORE
PUNJAB Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Dr Nizamuddin has called for revamping community medicine departments in medical colleges of the province to promote preventive care concepts.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of an international symposium ‘Transforming healthcare through education, training and research in family medicine’ at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) here Friday, he said as Pakistan struggled to improve health care delivery, it was clear that primary care providers, especially family physicians, were a key to more effective system. The general practice or family medicine was the corner stone of primary health care, he added.
Dr Nizamuddin maintained that family physicians integrated the biological, clinical, social and behavioural sciences to provide continuing and comprehensive health care. He stressed the need of collecting fresh data regarding health and promoting research in public health.
Former dean postgraduate medical education of Cambridge University, Prof John Biggs, said family medicine departments should be established in medical colleges and a separate cadre of teachers of family medicine be developed as per the direction of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC). He quoted researchers that primary health services in Pakistan, particularly in rural areas, were in dismal state.
‘If quality of care is not high on an agenda, a quality culture is not possible’, he said while recommending that an advisory group on family medicine be established which worked with the government on raising quality of standards in primary care.
Prof Biggs said institutions such as UHS should play role in the training of family physicians and there should be an agreement on a national curriculum, standards and assessment in this regard.
The distinguished professor at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Prof Riaz Qureshi, said research showed that countries which emphasised primary care and family medicine had better health outcomes at lower costs. He said in UK, in case of common illness, 75 percent people resorted to self-care, 22.5 percent consulted family physicians and 2.5 percent went to hospitals. UHS Vice-Chancellor, Maj Gen (r) Prof Muhammad Aslam, emphasised the need of learning lessons from the past and making collective efforts for the provision of training and education of family physicians. UHS Family Medicine Department’s head and the organising secretary of the symposium, Dr Usman Jawad, said UHS aimed at bringing all the stakeholders of family medicine in Pakistan under one roof to discuss various aspects.