Hi

It is the beginning of the month of Ramadaan and millions are fasting in pursuit of spiritual awareness. Join me in prayer that the world becomes a better place for all.

WONCA World Family Doctor Day, next Sunday 19th May 2019, is a chance to celebrate family doctors. As a family doctor I think it very motivating to feel appreciated. There are useful posters here. The easiest thing to do is to print out a large poster, put it up on a wall and get your receptionist to ask patients to write their thoughts in koki. There are many other activities being planned – health promotion days in communities, family doctor social / educational activities and social media selfies / statements. Join in, and also put up a picture of your poster (with patient comments) on the Facebook page and/or send to the WONCA Editor

The WONCA Africa Conference is a few days away on 6-8th June 2019 in Kampala, Uganda with the Primafamed Academic Pre-Conference 4-5th June (if you are an academic). Unfortunately I realised too late that Eid would on the 5th June. I will have be there as WONCA Africa President and hope to celebrate Eid with my family of family doctors. I do apologise to all Muslim family doctors for this oversight. If any family doctor is still able to join us then please book at the Marie Royale or Rwizi Arch, just come over and register there for the conference.

The relationship between WONCA and WHO is very important. The Astana Declaration was an important recent milestone in October 2018. There was considerable concern, that, despite the frequent mention of the important role of family doctors during Astana deliberations, actual mention was left out in the Declaration. Dr Donald Li, WONCA World President, pursued this with Dr Ghebreyesus, WHO Secretary-General subsequently. The result was a WHO-WONCA MOU, signed in February 2019, that set out to realise universal health coverage, with a special focus on the central role of family doctors in primary care teams and primary care delivery. It includes a focus on training and cross-disciplinary working. The parties are expected to develop workplans to deliver on this. In the light of this I reached out to WHO Afro. Whilst desirous of stronger collaboration I am very grateful that Dr Prosper Tumusiime, of WHO Afro, will be a plenary speaker at the Conference talking on this MOU and Africa. Another very important plenary speaker is Mr Nate Otoo, former CEO of NHI Ghana and director of SPARC (Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Centre) (housed in AMREF) who is supporting a number of African governments on provider payment system reform. See more about the speakers here. I hope I have whetted your appetite to join us!

An online WONCA Africa Ph.D. Forum has been developed as an opportunity to share, learn and stimulate completion of PhD candidates amongst family doctors in Africa. Join the first Zoom meeting next week 2-4pm (GMT+2) Thursday 16th June by clicking here. Start here if you are interested. Dr Jonathan Tshimwanga from Namibia will present his proposal on “Mental health the forgotten disaster: an evaluation of the psychosocial  impact of the protracted armed conflict”. I will provide some supervisory insights. However if you are really serious then visit the webpage WONCA Africa Ph.D. Forum and see what you have to do to get linked up to a supervisor.  If you have a PhD and want to supervise African Ph.D.s in primary care then please join our Google Group here.

We also want to develop capacity amongst academics in Africa. There will be a WONCA Africa Academic Development Meeting monthly by Zoom. Join this 2-4pm (GMT+2) on the 4th Thursday of every month. Click on https://zoom.us/j/760951671 at the time. The first one will be a presentation by myself with discussion on National Health Insurance Plans in South Africa and the place for the Diploma in Family Medicine. We hope to get more global leading lights to present on academic issues, including practical issues e.g. setting MCQs.

Visit the new WONCA Africa website at https://www.woncaafrica.org/. It is still a work in progress and could do with more content from Member Organisations and Academic Departments in Africa. See WONCA Africa NEWS for important posts including the advert for the new CEO of WONCA World. You can also follow Wonca Africa on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. If you are a family doctor in Africa join the WONCA Africa Telegram group and join our conversation daily. If you are young family doctor join Afriwon by request to info@woncaafrica.org

There is another Health System Science (HSS) Webinar 8-9pm (SA Standard Time) on 21st May 2019. This time it will be on ” Integrating Population Health – Perspectives from the U.S. and South Africa” including Prof Steve Reid from South Africa and Dr Rajasekaran from USA. Watch out on my blog www.profmoosa.com for the link, especially on the day of the webinar.

All this effort takes some money. Most of this has been achieved by using the WONCA World travel allocation to the WONCA Africa President. The African Region has very limited funds. We request you to donate to WONCA Africa through Paypal and help the networking of family doctors in Africa.

Feel free to circulate this email to colleagues. Ask them to join the email list here. Comments welcome!

rgds, Shabir
Assoc. Prof.  S. Moosa
MBChB, MFamMed, MBA, PhD
Jhb-Wits Family Medicine / Wonca Africa
+27(0)824466825 / +27(0)11–9840128
ProfMoosa  |  AfroCP  | WoncaAfrica | WitsHSS
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