Background:
Family Medicine is growing rapidly across the Eastern
Mediterranean Region. However, it needs support in terms of overall health
system development. This will require strong leadership in family medicine to
implement the change required to improve current conditions.
Objective:
To collect data that will support the development of a leadership
program for the future family physicians in the region.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2016 to
September 2016 in eight countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region,
(Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia).
These countries were selected to obtain perceptions of Family Physicians (FPs)
regarding the current leadership model and to explore the need for a new future
innovative model in Family Medicine (FM) across the region.
Results:
The information of 68 family physicians was included in the final
analysis. The majority of the FPs was females as compared to males (71%
vs. 29%). Forty-four percent of the FPs had 10 to 19 years of experience.
Almost all of the FPs (96%) had completed some training in family medicine
after graduation. About three fifths of the FPs had completed postgraduate
qualifications and out of those, 64% had passed Board or Membership
Examinations. Twenty-one percent of them are currently in a leadership role and
45% who were not in any leadership role responded that the current situation
of FM in their country is poor. All of the leaders believed that it is important to
develop strong leadership in FM to take the specialty forward. Almost similar
proportions (67% and 64%) of leaders and non-leaders thought that establishing
regional associations would enhance the FM practice model. Approximately two
thirds of leaders (67%) responded that the current role of decision makers in the
Ministry of Health (MOH) regarding capacity building in FM is not effective. The
majority of the FPs (54% and 38%) considers that the existing postgraduate
curriculum does not address leadership skill development in FM. Eighty-eight
percent of the FPs both from leadership and non-leadership groups agreed that
academic institutions and practicing FPs can play an effective leadership role in
taking FM forward.
Conclusion:
The Family Medicine specialty will have to develop leadership
capabilities in line with today’s fast-moving changes in healthcare for it to obtain
the due recognition in the healthcare delivery system.