Introduction
The 19th National Family Practitioners Conference was held August 12–14, 2016 at the River Club, Cape Town, South Africa. Although it was a cold, wet weekend, it did not spoil the beauty of the surrounding area. The River Club was a good choice of venue, because there are enough breakaway rooms of adequate size for workshops, but, when taking the weather into account, we would have preferred the rooms to be heated. Lunch was served outside next to the pool, which would be beautiful in summer but not in pouring rain and strong wind. The food choices at lunch were fairly limited, and there was no drinking water available during the course of the conference – we found this quite disappointing and out of the ordinary.
The general organisation of the conference was good. The days were just very long and tiring. This was one of our few family practitioners conferences that we attended, but we actually expected more attendees – especially those family practitioners from the private sector. The conference seemed to be organised for and targeted at academic family practitioners. Future organisers need to be more comprehensive in their planning or else the same few people will continue to attend this conference. Perhaps the conference could have been advertised more widely and included topics that would appeal to our colleagues outside the universities, including general practitioners.
Plenary sessions
The theme of the conference was ‘One country, two worlds – innovating quality care for all’. During the plenary sessions important issues in this regard were addressed, for example ‘One country, two health systems’ and ‘Quality care for all – really?’. Although we believe that we should all be aware of these issues, we do consider that they are socio political issues that are mostly to be addressed at government level. For us as family physicians and registrars it added little to the way in which we shall conduct our daily practice, though we have greater understanding of the social determinants of health and will do our best to be advocators for our patients’ best interests.
Special mention must be made regarding the plenary session ‘Dialogue on dietary dilemmas’ by Prof Tim Noakes and Dr Luc Evenpoel. This session not only provided good-quality information but was also high in entertainment value. No final conclusion was reached, but every attendee had the opportunity of formulating new opinions and discarding old ones.
Workshops
The workshops covered a wide spectrum of topics, and we believe that everybody could find something that was of interest to them. We appreciated the workshop on palliative care, because we are novices in the field and good, useful information was provided.
The oral presentations provided a platform for all to present their research. This was very informative, and for rookie researchers like us a lot was to be learnt.
Generally the attendees were participating well and sessions were well facilitated with time limits being respected, but we would have liked to see a variety of people involved in chairing and facilitating sessions, not just those who live in Cape Town.
Evening ceremony and cocktails
We were thoroughly impressed by Prof Steve Reid’s ability to play the violin – it was just too little! And we are still waiting for the ceremony to take place…. The food and drinks at the cocktail evening were very limited.
SAAFP annual general meeting
The SAAFP meeting was short, to the point, with no surprises – except for the very poor attendance. We think that, by being just a bit more involved, a great deal more can be achieved. Again, the academics from the Family Medicine departments seem to have exclusive rights to this organisation and only their interests are discussed.
Conclusions
As registrars in Family Medicine, we think the conference was informative, enjoyable, well organised and at an excellent venue. With only a few minor changes this event can improve into a really excellent opportunity that should not be missed.