THE role of family doctors is to take centre stage on Tuesday when Jamaica, for the first time since it was first declared by the World Health Organization in 2010, celebrates World Family Doctor Day.

It is a day designated to highlight the role and contribution of family doctors in health-care systems around the world.

Dr Arna J Brown Morgan, chairperson for the World Family Doctor Day Celebration, on Friday urged people to come out on Tuesday and celebrate with family doctors at Mandela Park in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, to participate in a health fair for all from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm.

She told the Jamaica Observer in an interview that there will be National Health Fund-sponsored mammograms, Electrocardiograms (ECGs), Family Planning Board-sponsored HIV tests, blood screening and a lot more.

The event coordinator said on Tuesday, family doctors will be celebrated.

“There is a role for the specialists and there is a particular role for the general practitioners, who is the doctor you can go to with everything, with every little thing,” she said.

Dr Brown Morgan said whether it is for counselling or to get medication, family doctors are there and have been there for generations and have now become like members of families.

“We need our communities to realise that they (family doctors) are there and they are wonderful individuals, who are capable,” she insisted.

— Anika Richards