Antonio Fernández-Pro Ledesma, president of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), has valued Health and its specialty in the last 40 years. In addition, he has brought his congratulations to the THE DOCTOR magazine for his 40 years.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of EL MÉDICO, could you take stock of your specialty over the last 40 years? What achievements have been achieved?
It is true that during these 40 years we have gone through several stages. A first stage of splendor, with the implementation of the Primary Care reform, with the promulgation of the General Health Law (1986) and a profound reform of Primary Health Care, initiated by Royal Decree 137/1984, on basic health structures, where we went from atomized and overcrowded medicine in outpatient clinics to medicine from a holistic point of view. The information system, the integration of Family Medicine in the MIR training programme, has had a lot to do with this, it was an absolute success at the time and we have had magnificently trained professionals, who are the envy of all the countries of our environment and have been demanded not only by the public health systems of our country but also by other countries.
From this moment on, health centers began to be implemented, with a clear characteristic, which was teamwork, multidisciplinary with much more accurate schedules and labor regulations for professionals, incorporating a portfolio of services common to the entire system. healthcare, new skills and abilities in the family doctor. Complementary tests were brought closer to this level of care, laboratory tests, radiology and numerous other tests were now in the hands of the family doctor, with which his resolution capacity increased and he managed to solve up to 90 percent of the demand of the population. At the same time, teaching and research were introduced in this field of care, where before it was practically anecdotal.
Health programs were implemented where risk control and preventive medicine prevailed. With an important level of satisfaction for the population, repeatedly. The Family doctor is the professional best valued by the population, in the different satisfaction surveys.
There is no doubt that Family Medicine is a young specialty, but it has shown full maturity throughout this time; making special mention of what has been developed in these last two years of the pandemic, very hard for its professionals, but where it has been shown that a strong and powerful first level of care is essential, to give cohesion to the entire SNS.
What has EL MÉDICO contributed to the health panorama?
EL MÉDICO is a publication that has provided truthful information on all issues related to the field of health, thanks to the fact that it has had a team of competent professionals specialized in health information who have known how to deal with the most relevant news at all stages. of recent decades, in which special emphasis should be placed on those related to the pandemic. With reference media such as EL MÉDICO, as many hoaxes or false news as have circulated in the coronavirus crisis would not have transpired.
Congratulations to EL MÉDICO Magazine
From the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) we want to congratulate EL MÉDICO and its entire human team for having reached 40 years of existence maintaining the values and mission that, from the beginning, encouraged them to establish and become one of the reference media in the information landscape of the health sector.