World Family Physician's Day is a reminder of the important role in the diagnostic process played by the knowledge and experience of medics who are closest to patients.
World Family Physician Day: It's not easy to find successors...
Published May 19, 2023 08:57
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They are called frontline doctors, and since the pandemic, frontline doctors. There are more than 10,000 of them in Poland, but even if this number were to increase by a hundred percent, each of them would still have something to do. Especially since, with successive changes in the primary health care system, their tasks and responsibilities continue to increase.
They have millions of citizens in need of health care under their care. Most often, these are entire families, with whom they have been acquainted for up to several decades. Sometimes they simultaneously treat three generations - grandparents, their now-adult children and grandchildren. And they also educate, explaining why, for example, it's a good idea to vaccinate children prophylactically and to keep fit and eat healthy. They are versatile specialists, providing care to patients of all ages - from children to seniors, for whom they are becoming peers in increasing numbers - in many regions, about 40 percent of family physicians are retirees, often people who are 70 and older. When outpatient clinics are closed in small towns for this reason, patients sometimes have to commute to other - the "nearest" such institutions even 30-50 kilometers... Meanwhile, it is not easy to find successors, because family medicine is a very difficult and demanding specialty.
However, on their holiday, family doctors don't want to complain about the daily inconveniences and prefer to talk about their wishes, which they wish would come true:
- I need more time for myself, rest, respite. And more doctors to work in the PCP, who will not only support me in my work, but will give me the opportunity to take a day off so that I can take care of my health myself and, for example, perform the preventive examinations that I so recommend to my patients," says Anna Osowska, a PCP, president of the Warmia-Mazury Association of PCP Doctors.
- If we can take a breather, think about ourselves, then we will take even better care of our patients later on," adds Joanna Szeląg, a family medicine specialist, vice president of the Podlasie Association of PZ Employer Physicians, a PZ expert.
- A family doctor is an advisor in health and illness... And I would like, above all, to advise in health. I wish patients would look to me more often just to talk about prevention, examinations, diet, healthy lifestyles," concludes Agata Slawin, a family medicine specialist, vice president of the Lower Silesian Association of Family Doctors-Employers, and an expert of the Zielonogórski Agreement.
Source: Federation Zielonogórskie Porozumienie Zielonogórskie
