People look at Family medicine very skeptically. Often people ask questions like what is the future scope of Family medicine and more often they come to a conclusion that it’s not worthwhile to take up family medicine. To understand the concept of family medicine one needs to know that it’s a primary care branch and not a tertiary care branch. You actually learn when to refer the patient outside. You become a real physician and deal with not only medicine cases but also minor surgical,paediatric and gynecology cases just like in primary care. You become the jack of all trades. People say there is no scope for Family medicine in big cities which is only partly true. Big hospitals do hire Family medicine doctors but the real essence of family medicine rests in working in a small town i.e primary care. One can even take up fellowship in Diabetology,Cosmetics,Geriatrics ,pain and palliative care etc after completing Family medicine . DNB board member Dr.Batra told us that they are planning to Start Superspecialty in geriatrics and palliative care.
Another advantage of Family medicine is that its international organization is very strong. There is something called as “Spice route movement “ ,the SPICE ROUTE is the WONCA South Asia Region working group for new and future doctors who have an interest in Family Medicine, General Practice and Primary Care. It aims to promote excellence in this field and to address the challenges pertaining to Global Health .Recently a Family Medicine department is also being set up at AIIMS,Delhi and job opportunities are plenty. You can get the post of a Assistant Prof or even HOD if you are experienced Enough. Passing rate is really good in Family Medicine.
As far as Ganga ram is concerned, Exposure and academics are good in Family medicine. We have 26 month posting in medicine and 3 months posting in OBG,Surgery,Paediatrics each. We have One lecture per week on Saturday. Overall pass rate is good in Gangaram .Gangaram is a brand, a very well known hospital, everyother thing is just subjective. You get to learn so much just by looking at the patients sometimes.
In the end i would like to conclude that Family medicine completes the Health care system and its future is not as bad as portrayed by many , in fact its good and even better if you have your own setup/backup.
If you have any doubts regarding Family medicine you can contact me on 8983258896
Dr.Vishal Baghele
DNB Resident,Family Medicine
Sir Ganga Ram hospital,Delhi
Stipend???….how is the passing rate for diff dept ???