Abstract
“It is much more important to know what sort of patient has a disease than what sort of disease a patient has”. Sir William Osler MD (1849 - 1919).Family Physicians, a term synonymous with general practitioners are the back-bone of healthcare around the developed world. General practitioners also known as family doctors have been the first port of call for patients since the beginning of times. With the advent of specialisation, the term general practice is gradually being replaced by family medicine in much of the developed world. Similarly, doctors working as general practitioners are now known as family physicians in many places around the world.In the west, family physicians provide continuity of care to their patients. Illness and health are managed in a holistic man-ner through shared decision-making,1these have become the core principles of family medicine. With the increase in chronic diseases, care is managed by different specialities, this has led to the potential fragmentation and deterioration in the continuity of care.2Family physicians provide healthcare to the entire family, they see patients from the time they are born to the time chronic diseases take hold, and provide them with palliative care. Patients with poor mobility, the elderly and those not being able to visit the health centres are visited at home by family physicians. Primary healthcare, provided with the principles of comprehensiveness, coordinated, encompassing holistic approach, patient centred with shared decision-making, results in better care. This results in a better community care, better value, and decreases the burden of costs on the health system.3World association of family doctors (WONCA) considers family medicine as an academic and scientific discipline, with clinical activity, research, education all oriented towards primary healthcare.4While many Middle Eastern countries have started a move towards a modern primary care incorporating family medi-cine as a speciality5 and hence improving healthcare, Pakistan has unfortunately made no move towards a reformation in its healthcare policies. The only move towards the implementation of the speciality was made by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) issuing a no-tification in 2014 to all medical colleges, directing the examination of the final year medical students in the speciality; this, however, has yet to bear any fruit. Many factors play a part in the de-velopment of a healthy nation; Pakistan has its own challenges. Broken health systems, ghost medical centres, lack of workforce and training has played its part in the failure of achieving WHO’s Millennium development goals. WHO described targets of policy reforms that strengthen health systems, together with ownership by the governments with aims for regulation of funding, and workforce.6Pakistan currently spends 0.9% of GDP
Sajad Ahmad. (2016) FAMILY MEDICINE: A SAVIOUR OF ILL HEALTHCARE IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA AND BEYOND, KHYBER MEDICAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL, Volume 8, Issue 4.
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