NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2023 9 WONCA CALLED World Family Doctor Day (WFDD) “an excellent opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate … the exceptional contributions of primary care teams globally. …On 19 May, let’s honour and appreciate the tireless efforts of family doctors and provide recognition to family doctors, hopefully leading to increased morale”. The Caribbean College of Family Physicians – Jamaica, the Association of General Practitioners of Jamaica (AGPJ), and the Family Medicine unit – Department of Community Health and Psychiatry unite for WFDD to thank our dedicated family doctors who serve with excellence despite the ever-present challenges. Here, we chronicle some of those moments, past and present. In 2015 at our Mandela Park fair, the doctors recited the Hippocratic Oath and renewed their vows and ethical commitments to the practice of medicine. Medical stalwarts were also honoured, including: • The then head of the Nursing Association of Jamaica, Sister Janet Farr. • Dr Winsome Segree, the inceptor of the family medicine teaching programme in Jamaica, founder of the General Practitioners Association of Jamaica, and founder of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians. There’s no measure for her gift to the family doctors and people of Jamaica. • Drs Owen James and Carmen BowenWright, hard-working retired past presidents of our family doctors’ associations, andDr Donald Gordon, current president of the AGPJ, were also on hand for us to say‘thank you’, as were several other distinguished family and primary care physicians: Prof Brendan Bain, Dr Blossom Anglin-Brown, Prof Horace Fletcher, Dr Marion Bullock DuCasse, Dr Seni Ononuju, Dr Alva Redwood-Kiddoe and Dr Ouida Golding Beecher. They are family doctor heroes. In 2016, several events were held to honour Family Doctors of Excellence: • Retirees banquet at the Terra Nova Hotel. • Walkathon honouring Family Doctors at Emancipation Park. • Church service of thanksgiving at the St Andrew Parish Church. • Gleaner supplement. Legendary family doctors were fêted at the inaugural WFDD Celebratory Banquet held in Jamaica! Quote: “Not everyone can be honoured here tonight, not everyone will hear their name called tonight, but all you who go by the name ‘family doctor’ are thanked for your services!” Citations of Excellence were presented to Ambassador Matthew Beaubrun, Prof Sir Kenneth Livingston Standard, Dr Mary Sloper, Prof Winston George Mendez Davidson, Dr Winsome Segree, Dr Carmen Bowen-Wright, Dr Owen Desmond Oliver Minott, founding members of the family doctors’ associations in Jamaica and outstanding physicians in their own right. Gifts of appreciation were handed out to: Dr Joan Clarke, Dr Sonia Davidson, Dr Horatio Dunn, Dr Jan Glean, Dr Ouida Golding-Beecher, Dr Hugh Mairs-Ingram, Dr Marjorie Kerr, Dr Owen James, Dr Winsome Miller-Rowe, Dr Phillip Nash, Dr Seni Ononuju, Dr Robert Parchment, Dr James Peart, Dr Lloyd Quarrie, Dr Garth Rattray, Dr Patrick Robinson, Dr Fay Whitbourne. Subsequently, theWFDD celebrations would feature in our WFDD Gleaner Supplement, family doctors who by their daily dedication and commitment to excellence at work and within their communities, embody those qualities which seem most important to function well as family doctors. Family Doctors of Excellence include: Year 2021: Dr Peter Swaby Year 2022: Dr Patrick Robinson Year 2023: Dr Seni Ononuju and Dr Eileen Lopez Gordon We will never be able to adequately thank our family doctors who daily exert themselves to the fullest, often above the call of duty, in their service of that group of people they call ‘patients’! DR ARNA J. BROWN MORGAN Family Physician WORLD FAMILY DOCTOR D Y 2023 FAMILY DOCTORS OF EXCELLENCE WFDD Doctors of Excellence 2023 – Drs Eileen Lopez -Gordon and Seni Ononuju
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