Community paediatrics and child health

Abstract

TO THE EDITOR: In 2012, the Postgraduate Education Committee of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) supported the accreditation of Community Paediatrics and Child Health (CPCH) as a paediatric subspecialty; however, full HPCSA approval is outstanding. Consequently, by February 2015 there had been no visible progress towards implementation. Power and Heese and Swingler et al. highlighted the benefits of CPCH, rendering further debates about CPCH accreditation unnecessary, particularly in a country where: (i) progress towards the fourth Millennium Development Goal is slow; (ii) glaring gaps exist between hospital-based and community care, and between private and public sector care;[3] and (iii) current under- and postgraduate paediatric training emphasises clinical subspecialties (despite reduced public sector posts), yielding graduates with limited knowledge about priority child health conditions. Primary healthcare re-engineering and the establishment of district clinical specialist teams in South Africa have starkly revealed the urgency of CPCH training. CPCH locates child health within a sociocultural-economic-political-environmental-systemic paradigm. Successful community paediatricians share four characteristics: (i) academic collaboration; (ii) finding evidencebased local solutions; (iii) establishing strong community-based partnerships; and (iv) addressing disease outside traditional biomedical models. This suggests that our sometimes narrow approach to under- and postgraduate training needs significant adaptation. The British Association for Community Child Health, affiliated to the Royal College of Paediatricians, is a successful model we can adapt. This custodian of community paediatrics directs traineeships, stipulates requirements and outlines the scope of the discipline.