Jordan Minister of Health meeting with WONCA EMR delegation

Photo from right to left: Dr Mariam AbdulMalik, Dr Oraib Alsmadi, Dr Jinan Usta, Prof Mahoud Al-Sheyyab, Dr Mohammed Tarawneh, Dr Mai AlHadidi, Dr Mohamed Rasoul Tarawneh

Sunday, April, 15, 2018
Jordan, Amman

WONCA East Mediterranean Region (EMR) has planned to meet different ministers of health in our region in order to promote and seek more support to the family medicine specialty.

As the first step, delegates from WONCA EMR had a fruitful meeting with His Excellency Prof Mahmoud Al-Sheyyab, the Jordanian Minister of Health and Dr Mai Hadidi, head of family medicine specialty in Ministry of Health. The WONCA delegation was led by Dr Mohammed Tarawneh, WONCA EMR president; Dr Jinan Usta, WONCA EMR president-elect; Dr Mariam Abdulmalik, the general manager of the PHC corporation from Qatar, Dr Mohamed Rasoul Tarawneh, Jordan Society of Family Medicine president and the Health Higher Council general secretary; Dr Oraib Alsmadi, WONCA EMR treasurer.

His Excellency, Dr Al-Sheyyab mentioned that the Jordanian Ministry of Health (MOH) is looking to the family medicine as the corner stone for PHC and importance of this specialty in improving primary health care services. The MOH in its five year strategic plan will produce more family physicians to cover most of its 400 comprehensive and PHC centers in the country. The EMR delegates appreciated Dr Al-Sheyyab’s efforts and his support for more family physicians by increasing the number of family physicians trainees recruited into the residency programs and increasing the training health centers, as well the trainers.

The delegates discussed the cooperation with the MOH through providing technical support in training, related workshops, and holding regional and local conferences of family medicine and PHC. The delegates also specified the importance of family medicine departments in all faculties of medicines; the bridging program initiated by the WHO in collaboration with the American University of Beirut was also discussed as one of the programs that could help in building the capacities of general practitioners working in the MOH. Dr Al-Sheyyab emphasized the importance of clinical guidelines and protocols to standardize clinical practices and asked about WONCA support related to this issue.

Dr Mohammed Tarawneh WONCA EMR president emphasised the necessity of communicating the support for the FM specialty to the ministers of health in the region in order to increase the recruited number of physicians in this specialty, mainly during the annual WHO regional committee meetings.