How to restore the value of family medicine

When the Medical Post published this article More training: Canadian family medicine residency to expand to three years, the comments flooded in from many colleagues—the majority of them had great and valuable opinions. However I believe we shouldn’t try to restore the value of family medicine in order to declare our competency over the NPs on the pretext that their training is very short, yet they bear the privileges of family doctors. Read: Dr. Jabir Jassam: As doctors, are we rich or poor? What if the nurse group responds and increases their residency to two years, would we increase our residency to four? In order to re-establish family medicine’s value and prestige, we need to know the reasons for its deterioration and who is responsible. So first, who is responsible for the deterioration of the value and prestige of family medicine? Is it: The CFPC? The health ministry? Family doctors themselves? Other specialists? The emergence of available alternatives such as NPs, PAs and possibly others in the future? If we are able to identify the reasons behind this retrogradation, we might be able to draw a road map to correct our path. Let us hope that the solution won’t be in the hands of the current decision-makers, one of whom went out one day to insult family doctors, claiming that they are lazy and do not work enough. No one will claim that he/she knows the exact reasons behind the deterioration and the best solutions to improve it but, probably, most of us know: No one will be able to devalue us unless we open a door or give an opportunity for others to belittle us. The value will not be recovered if the goal is to be better than our competitors. Family medicine is heading to a crisis. The best solutions come from those who are in the frontline, not from those who are sitting behind closed doors. Why don’t we open a platform for discussion so that everyone with a valuable opinion can post it? We may together find out the reasons behind family medicine deterioration and find the best ways to reform it. Colleagues, let’s open the doors for discussion and try to deliver it to those who are interested and care. The discussion is for all specialists not exclusively for family doctors. In your opinion: Who is responsible for the deterioration of family medicine? What are the reasons behind family medicine’s deterioration? How can we restore the value of family medicine? Dr. Jabir Jassam is a family physician in Ottawa.

How to restore the value of family medicine

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