MoHAP celebrates graduation of second batch of general practitioners in family medicine specialty

DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 19th Jul, 2020) The Primary Health Care Department at the Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, recently organised a virtual graduation ceremony for the second batch of general practitioners in the family medicine specialty.

The programme, which is the first of its kind across the UAE aims to boost the skills and capabilities of the general practitioners to help enhance healthcare quality.

Present at the ceremony were Dr. Hussein Abdel Rahman Al-Rand, Assistant Under-Secretary of the ministry’s Health Sector, Health Centres and Clinics; Dr. Aisha Suhail, Director of the Primary Health Care Department, and Dr. Haifa Fares, Director of the Family Medicine Residency programme.

In 2018, 51 doctors enrolled in the first stage of the programme from across the country, while 31 doctors joined the second phase, of them, 13 were chosen as trainers. Their job is to follow-up with the newly enrolled doctors to provide them with the necessary support and train them on various skills.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Al-Rand underlined the significance of this programme as it is related to accomplishing the objectives of UAE Vision 2021 "to provide one family doctor for every 1,000 people".

Therefore, MoHAP has launched this programme in partnership with the World Health Organisation to increase knowledge, avoid medical errors, and raise the productivity of doctors as per international medical rules.

"The studies showed a decline in the negative health indicators and healthcare costs in the countries which have adopted the primary healthcare and family medicine systems," he added.

Al Rand commended the efforts of those in charge of the programme and wished the trainers and graduates success in achieving the objectives and aspirations of MoHAP in terms of providing comprehensive and integrated healthcare services.

Dr. Haifa Fares said the programme is being managed by Emirati family medicine doctors and it is planned to be part of licencing MoHAP’s general practitioners in the future.

"The programme mainly depends on a distinctive e-learning platform in addition to some interactive lectures. This would help raise the productivity of general practitioners by about 70 percent which is a high percentage compared to the internationally capacity support programmes.