At the end of February 2022, a DU in Family Medicine was officially inaugurated in Cairo. Lasting two years, it is recognized by the authorities of the member countries of the EMRO zone, including Morocco.
This adoption had put back on the table an old debate, carried by several entities of the Health sector, in particular the Moroccan society of General Medicine and Family (SMMGF), which launched its ” advocacy » for the implementation of the online family medicine training course, concocted by the American University of Beirut (UAB), with the support of WHO, Wonca, the Arab Board, UNESCO and other international organizations.
The advocacy process started in June 2014 in Cairo, at the World Health Organization Forum on PPP (public-private partnership) and continued the following year, also in Cairo.
According to Dr. Rachid Choukri, fervent defender of the course of care and of the family doctor who confided in MoroccoLatestNews UK“ when you put a general practitioner at the door of the entrance to the health system, and when you set up a care pathway, the real backbone of the health system, everyone wins, especially the specialist” .
In 2001 a workshop was launched in Marrakech, “ Marrakesh Group » with the support of the WHO, which brought together some thirty doctors representing associations of Ministry of Health officials and CMS officials.
The report of this workshop pointed out that, like his European or North American colleagues, the Moroccan general practitioner has been the pivot of our health system for decades. That said, the appearance of specialized medicine in a society undergoing profound change and resolutely consuming modernity without necessary regulatory measures has gradually and considerably reduced the field of action of the private general practitioner.
The priority establishment of continuing medical training adapted to the needs of practitioners and organized on a local basis is an exciting challenge in addition to the establishment of a standardized basic medical file which constitutes an essential step in the quality approach. care desired by the profession and expected by all the players concerned, had also supported the document.
It had also been recommended that general medicine units be created within medical faculties, which would be made up of teachers, representatives of the ministry and private and public general practitioners and which would be responsible for adapting the curriculum of future general practitioners and ensure their supervision throughout the training.
In this sense, Dr. Choukri tells us that he knocked on all doors, including that of the Ministry of Health, in 2013 already. At the time, it was Houcine Louardi who was Minister of Health, and had been receptive and agreed with the proposal of the president of the Moroccan Society of General Medicine and Family.
The Minister had even given them the green light to launch the project, but under the banner of an association or society, hence the creation of the Moroccan Society of General Medicine and Family. But after his departure in 2017 and the arrival of a new minister (Anass Doukkali), the project was put on stand-by even though it had been presented to the new minister.
Today, health professionals insist on this course of care and on the general practitioner or family doctor, emphasizing this ” paradox between the weak economic development of the country and the poor use of resources, the most important of which is undoubtedly the general practitioner, a first-line doctor, capable of solving the majority of the population’s health problems at low cost” instead of going directly to a specialist and increasing the costs of the service which sometimes requires a simple visit to a general practitioner.
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