Table 3.

Opportunities for family medicine development in Ethiopia

National

• There is a high need for quality and comprehensive primary care that family medicine can provide.

• The Ministry of Health actively seeks to upscale the current primary care health care system.

• There is an increasing number of postgraduate training programs by the Ministry of Health including family medicine.

• There is a gap between primary care provided by GPs, health officers, and health extension workers and other specialty care that family medicine specialty can fill.

• There is an opportunity for family medicine specialists to be health care system leaders.

Institutional

• The increasing number of medical school graduates provides an increasing pool of potential future family medicine residents.

• If done well, experienced GPs looking for specialty certification could join family medicine after serving time as self-made family physicians.

Program

• There is only one family medicine residency program currently, and this leaves a lot of space for other programs to emerge.

• The existing family medicine program is producing family medicine graduates who can lead family medicine growth in Ethiopia.

• The Ministry of Health is allowing some medical school graduates to join specialty training without serving their time as a GP, and the family medicine specialty is given a preference at this time.

• Potential internal and external brain drain of graduating family medicine specialists could threaten the viability of the specialty.

Abbreviation: GP, general practitioner.