Abstract:
The largest impact on the South African burden of disease will be made in community-based and primary healthcare (PHC) settings and not
in referral hospitals. Medical generalism is an approach to the delivery of healthcare that routinely applies a broad and holistic perspective to
the patient’s problems and is a feature of PHC. A multi-professional team of generalists, who share similar values and principles, is needed to
make this a reality. Ward-based outreach teams include community health workers and nurses with essential support from doctors. Expert
generalists – family physicians – are required to support PHC as well as provide care at the district hospital. All require sufficient training,
at scale, with greater collaboration and integration between training programmes. District clinical specialist teams are both an opportunity
and a threat. The value of medical generalism needs to be explained, advocated and communicated more actively.
Description:
This article is based in part on keynote addresses given
by Proff A C Howe and J F M Hugo at the 16th National Family Practitioners Conference in Cape Town, SA, in May 2013 themed ‘Reclaiming Generalism.’