Medical Aid for Palestinians’ Chief Executive Officer, Tony Laurance, was in Palestine last week with International Development of Family Medicine in Palestine (IDFMP) for the launch of the Family Practice programme for Palestine’s West Bank.
This is fantastic start. The reform programme introducing family practice has now been launched, and, over time, will make a huge difference to the quality of primary care.
Family practice is the model of primary care followed in the NHS and by many countries around the world. The key principle is to provide integrated, holistic continuous and comprehensive care through the family practice team. The initiative, headed by the Ministry of Health and supported by IDFMP, MAP and WHO will help address the growing burden of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke, which are the leading causes of death in Palestine. The development of family practice in the West Bank can provide a clearer pathway to specialist treatment of these conditions, as well as a platform for their prevention and health promotion.
With the support of MAP, last week IDFMP conducted a training-for-trainers for graduates of An-Najah University Family Practice programme. These trainers will in turn deliver orientation training to all Family Practice practitioners of the Palestinian Ministry of Health. MAP and IDFMP also attended a meeting with senior Palestinian Ministry of Health district staff to officially launch the Family Practice Programme, and further meetings with An-Najah University to agree support for their post-graduate programme in Family Practice.
Returning from this trip, Tony Laurance said: “This is fantastic start. The reform programme introducing family practice has now been launched, and, over time, will make a huge difference to the quality of primary care. MAP and IDFMP have played a vital role in this, and will continue to support the development of family practice in Palestine.”