What shall we do for family medicine?

In november 2014 the pakistan medical and dental council directed that family medicine should be taught to final year medical students. family medicine will be strengthened as a result. this paper considers some implications of the decision,identifying first the need for more information on primary care services,especially in the private sector,to enable planning of the curriculum and attachments to public and private units. the challenges to medical colleges in providing what will be largely experiential learning are described and the importance of training practitioners is emphasised. the urgent need to overcome the virtual absence in pakistan of postgraduate training in family medicine described,and the quality standards of primary care are explored and the need for attention in the face of student learning is described. recommendations are offered,including an advisory board on family medicine to audit its introduction and performance. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.