Ethiopia
Population (2017): 105 M
Income Per Capita (2018): 767.56 US
Percentage of GDP on Healthcare: 4.05
training
The year Family Medicine established: 2013
Type of Training: Residency
Length of Medical School: 6 years
Length of Training: 3 years
Number of institutions that offer family medicine: 1- Addis Ababa University.
Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: Currently 10-third years, and 3-second years, and 8-first years. There is an incoming class of 17 new first years as of December 17, 2018. There are not a set number of graduates. It varies every year. Currently, there are approx. 21 graduates.
practice
Number of family doctors in a country (2018): unknown
Physician to population ratio (2016): 100 doctor per 100,000 people.
DALY: 47,529 per 100,000 individuals (Due to all Causes).
Life Expectancy:
Females 2017: 67.8 years
Males 2017: 64.0 years
Mortality rate 2017:
2017 Males: 240 per 1,000 male adults.
2017 Females: 189 per 1,000 female adults.
Infant Immunization-HepB3: % of 1-year-old children received: 72%
College of Family Physicians (Y or N):
NO
healthcare system
The healthcare system in Ethiopia is mixed, with both private and public sectors. Patients can only access the government health facility if they have a card from a local neighborhood association. Private system provides care from immediate clinic up to a hospital. Family physicians will need to maintain a respectful relationship with other specialist physicians as well as non-physician primary care providers. The place of general practice in Ethiopia’s health care system is still undefined. There are very few incentives to attract young doctors to it as a career. As a result, most see it as a temporary occupation. There are approximately 3000 physicians in the private and public sector.
training
Family medicine is a new specialty in Ethiopia. The first seven family physicians graduated in February 2016 from Addis Ababa University. There are still some challenges that family medicine physicians are facing. There is a lack of understanding family medicine in Ethiopia, and financial resources are needed to continue to upgrade the program to adapt and fit the Ethiopian context. With the help from the Federal Ministry of Health and other Ethiopian, African, and international primary care organizations, family medicine training will become more successful.
practice
Primary care providers are individuals who have any contact with the health care system, outside of a tertiary care system. For example, a nurse, midwife, a general practitioner at a health post would be considered primary care deliverers. Family physicians working in health centres or district hospitals may act as consultants to other health care workers, and may have greater community and public health roles. They can serve as faculty at the residency program; currently 8 family medicine graduates are serving that role at the institution offering family medicine training. The role of family physicians in health care system is undefined. It is expected that family physicians will function in the primary and secondary health care levels. This may include working at general hospitals, primary hospitals, and health centres. Family physicians will be skilled clinicians, but they will also have competencies to function as health managers and team leaders. Roles will presumably be different for family physicians working in urban versus rural areas. You do not need a referral from a family doctor to see a specialist. They serve as gatekeepers in terms of seeing a specialist with a referral from a family doctor, but that doesn’t mean that other primary care providers such as nurses or general practitioners cannot refer patients to specialists. The model of primary care used is a Community Oriented Primary Care Model.