The Royal College of General Practitioners is
pleased to have contributed its perspective to this important
report which helps set out the potential strategy for the exchange
of health care expertise and experiences between the UK and Africa
and South Asia, particularly with former Commonwealth
Countries.
Lord Crisp’s report identifies some of the
important issues and the wide variety of successful – and less
successful – governmental and non-governmental strategies.
The ethos of the international work of the
RCGP over nearly 20 years has been to support the development of
locally relevant programmes of general practice. The report
acknowledges this in the accreditation of the South Asia MRCGP[INT]
examination, which provides a standard for family medicine for a
quarter of the world’s people and is now intended to be translated
to the context of Africa.
The important issues for the scaling up of the
Primary Healthcare workforce in these continents through academic
support, exchanges and accreditation over the long term are crucial
to the success and self sustainability of any UK support. The
practical arrangements for the identification and co-ordination of
appropriate GPs in response to humanitarian crises can now be
addressed learning from other international models.
While the report is to be very much welcomed,
it does not address some very practical barriers of implementation.
This will require the implementation of some of the strategies
recommended, to which the RCGP and the other Medical and Nursing
Royal Colleges can contribute, but also the purposeful support and
collaboration of G Government and the Regulatory Bodies of the
Medical Profession.
Such barriers include:
- Breaks in the NHS Pension scheme for NHS personnel
- Incentives and resources to backfill leave from Primary Care
and General Practices
- Integrating accredited overseas training experience in the
Modernising Medical Careers pathways
- Overcoming the restrictions to the managed training and
education experiences for overseas doctors, nurses and other
healthcare workers to the UK
- Ensuring congruence with the revalidation of doctors
- Harnessing the untapped potential of recently retired
clinicians, members of Medical and Nursing Royal Colleges working
in other overseas countries, and providing focus for the ‘elective
periods’ of final year UK medical students
- Supporting collaborative organisations such as the Medical and
Nursing Royal Colleges who can actually deliver this agenda in the
short, medium and long term.
Lord Crisp proposes a Global Health
Partnership Centre to act as a ‘one-stop shop’ source of
information for individuals and health organisations. This has
already been anticipated by the development of the Royal Colleges
International Forum, whose members and affiliates include many of
the key organisations required for implementation of this report
and who will also provide support through the Academy of the
Medical Royal Colleges.
Notes to Editors:
Dr John Howard, Medical Director MRCGP [INT] and
Vice Chairman of the Royal Colleges International Forum is
available for interview. Please contact Gillian Watson, RCGP Public
Relations, on 020 7344 3135 or press@rcgp.org.uk