We salute you

AS WE celebrate World Family Doctor Day 2020, I am pleased to join with the local chapter of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians in saluting and acknowledging the significant role of family doctors in ensuring the best health outcomes for Jamaicans.

The Ministry of Health & Wellness is cognisant that delivering appropriate care to the majority of the population now requires a paradigm shift from episodic, short-term interventions to long-term, comprehensive integrated care for those with continuing care needs.

Integrated care is especially important for the older population because they may increasingly have multiple chronic noncommunicable diseases and receive care from many different providers in various settings. Integrated care systems help keep older persons living at home, without reducing their access to quality care. Integrated approaches have also been shown to reduce stress on the healthcare system, through fewer hospital visits and reduced hospital stays. This shift is even more important as the population adjusts to living in a world with COVID-19.

In Jamaica, the most beneficial option to achieving integrated care is to strengthen the role of the primary care or family doctors who play a key role in care coordination, a core value of their profession, and to foster the continuity of a therapeutic relationship.

As part of our intervention, the Ministry of Health & Wellness will continues its work to strengthen our primary healthcare team through family-medicine training for more physicians, to allow them tailor care based on their patients’ needs.

Again, I commend family doctors across the island for their commitment to the profession. Happy World Family Doctor Day! DR CHRISTOPHER TUFTON Minister of Health & Wellness