Academy quarterly newsletter

From the President’s desk

The new Academy council got to work at the end of last year and held a one-day workshop to develop a strategic plan for the Academy over the next three years. The key goals that they identified are listed below:

• To increase membership numbers: Although the number of family physicians on the HPCSA register has increased to 1064, mainly as a result of the grandfathering period last year, the membership of the Academy has lagged behind. In addition, the Academy has few associate members from general practitioners and medical officers working in family medicine and primary care settings.
• To advocate for and brand the discipline more actively: There is still a need to raise awareness of the discipline of family medicine and reach consensus on its role in the health system with the general public, department of health, private sector organisations and other stakeholders. We plan to develop a systematic strategy to guide our approach to advocacy and branding.
• To strengthen education and training: The education and training committee will help co-ordinate activities between the nine training programmes in order to promote family medicine as a career, ensure a high quality of intake to the programmes, improve clinical training, increase the number of graduates and advocate for more FP posts in the public sector.
• To promote the recognition of family medicine in the private sector: Particularly in terms of the scope of practice and remuneration of family physicians.

 

Enhance the CPD footprint for members: We will market membership benefits more such as eCPD, improve the quality of CPD in the SA Family Practice Journal and expand the number of skills workshops.

Maintain the annual conference and improve attendance: See details of the 21st National Family Practitioners Congress 2018, River Club, Cape Town, August 24, 2018 – August 26, 2018 http://saafp.org/conferences/index.php/ANFPC/2018 Improve the impact of the SA Family Practice Journal: To improve the quality of research, number of citations and increase visibility.

Engage more actively with our strategic partners: Engaging with SAMA, RuDASA, WONCA and the Colleges of Medicine SA.

Earn all your CEU’s free of charge each year

All paid up SAAFP members have access to the print CPD activities in the South African Family Practice journal as well as it’s online CPD courses. With the collaboration of AOSIS eCPD all SAAFP members also have free, unlimited access to eCPD’s Signature courses, giving our members the ability to earn all the required clinical and ethics CEU’s each year at no additional cost. Members are automatically registered on the site when they become a member.

Read here for more information on how to navigate the website.

21st National Family Practitioners Congress,

River Club, Cape Town | 24 – 26 August 2018

We take great pleasure in inviting you to the 21st Annual National Family Practitioners Congress from the 24th to 26th August 2018 at the River Club Mowbray Cape Town. The theme of the conference is “Family Medicine and the Circle of Life”. There will be an emphasis on the “first thousand days”, the contribution of family doctors throughout the continuum of life, including palliative care.

Call for Papers

The scientific committee of the 21st Annual National Family Practitioners Congress is extending an invitation for the submission of research abstracts for the congress that will be held in Cape Town 24-26 August 2018. We are encouraging colleagues to share research-work that illustrates the advancement of Family Medicine as a growing, exciting and important discipline.

We call on for abstracts to be submitted for peer review before 30 April 2018 in order to be considered for presentation at this congress. Each abstract will be peer reviewed and evaluated in terms of its scientific rigour,  social and/ or academic value. Reviewers will decide on whether to recommend acceptance or rejection of an abstract.  If the abstract is accepted, a recommendation will be made for oral presentation or poster. The scientific committee will inform applicants of the outcome of the review by 30 May 2018.

Please click here for the Author Guidelines.

Don’t miss out on the discounted Early Bird rates. REGISTER NOW!

World Family Doctor Day | 19 May 2018

 

This year, World Family Doctor Day on May 19 has the theme: “Family doctors – leading the way to better health”. We would like to invite our members to submit brief stories or examples of how you are “leading the way to better health” in South Africa. Please send a short narrative together with one or two photographs. We plan to share the best stories on our website, facebook and subsequent newsletters as well as with the global WONCA community.

More information and resources for World Family Doctor Day can be found at http://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/member/ForMemberOrganizations/WorldFamilyDoctorDay

You can send your stories and pictures to us at members@saafp.org.

Handbook of Family Medicine 4th EditionHandbook of Family Medicine 4e

The Academy is proud to announce the publication of the 4th edition of the Handbook of Family Medicine. Edited by Prof Bob Mash the content has been written by family physicians from across South Africa. This new edition contains several new chapters that cover topics such as leadership, clinical governance and learning in primary care teams.

Other chapters, such as the consultation and community orientated primary care, have been completely re-written. The amount of clinical content has also been significantly increased to cover most common presentations and chronic conditions. The book will be invaluable for all students and practitioners of family medicine. The print edition with ISBN 9780190429218 is available from Oxford University Press and selling for R519.00.

Food and Trees for Africa

Some of the proceeds of the 2016 Annual National Family Practitioners Congress held in Cape Town, under the convenorship of Dr Michael Pather, were donated to Food and Trees for Africa. We are so proud of the organising committee for their commitment to decrease the carbon footprint caused by the Congress. Trees were donated to Gontse Primary School and Pele Primary School in Soshanguve, Gauteng. You can read the full report here.

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