World Family Doctors Day 2023

Family doctors: the heart of health care 17 May 2023, Cairo – On 19 May 2023, WHO joins the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and Member States in celebrating World Family Doctor Day. Family doctors play a crucial role in promoting the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Their dedication, compassion and expertise make them the heart of health care, and a trusted source of support for patients and families. Family practice is a pivotal element of WHO’s vision of health for all by all and health care efforts to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Enhancing and scaling up a fit-for-purpose, fit-to-practice health workforce, including family doctors, is the fourth of 7 regional priorities to build resilient health systems in the Region. The shortage of family practitioners worldwide, and especially in many countries of the Region, is a key challenge to implementing primary health care (PHC)-based models of care. "We are also working to tackle the shortage of trained family practitioners. This is a key challenge. Only 700 family practitioners graduate each year in the Region, against an estimated need for 21 000 new practitioners per year to reach our regional target of 3 family physicians per 10 000 population by 2030," said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari in his statement for World Family Doctor Day, 2022. The Regional Office's PHC team is working to support family physicians in the Region. The most recent init...
Source: WHO EMRO News - Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news