The South African Academy of Family Physicians (SAAFP) has launched an initiative called the Next5. This initiative promises to support newly qualified family physicians in their first five years since graduating.

The SAAFP has reviewed the number of registrars who became SAAFP members on graduation. Reassuringly, the numbers graduated over the past 2-years have grown, but there appears to be an unmet need in this group of potential SAAFP members.

Newly appointed family physicians will benefit from an active process of support and role clarification within their healthcare teams to establish themselves in the health system and mature in all their different roles. By encouraging existing family physicians, through our mentorship program, to support new family physicians in their transition from registrar to expert generalist trained to work in both public and private healthcare sectors, we trust that this new Academy initiative will assist with creating an ongoing “sense of belonging” in the SAAFP community and tangible membership benefits for all newly qualified family physicians.

We encourage all registrars to continue their full membership of the SAAFP upon graduating and become involved with the Next5 activities. Should you be interested to become part of the initiative please click on the link provided below and submit your details. We will make contact with you.

Kind Regards

Dr. CC van der Bijl

On behalf of the Next5 team