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A ‘doctor for all ailments’

DUBAI — Dr Riaz Qureshi, FRCGP Professor and Chair of Family Medicine Department at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, was recently in Dubai to attend a health conference arranged by the Ministry of Health, Sharjah.

Dr Riaz Qureshi, who can be described as a ‘doctor for all ailments’, told Khaleej Times: “I am a family physician which means that I am an expert in common problems which can then be referred to a specialist.”

Even though Dr Qureshi is a family doctor, surprisingly, more than families, it is the corporate companies that require his services for their employees.

“A family doctor needs to have 10 desirable qualities that can enable him to perform his duties perfectly,” said Dr Qureshi, adding that he should have a caring attitude, clinical competence, be able to provide cost-effective, continuous and comprehensive care, can offer community-based care, can do coordination of care, have an expertise for common problems, be equipped with communication and counselling skills and have continuing medical education (CME). He said most people are unaware of the benefits of a family doctor.

“Basically family doctors can also help people by treating them personally. They are good at treating cases that need psychological care, common, physical and social problems. They also offer counselling services due to which they come closer to their patients. They also offer community-based care instead of referring them to hospitals or clinics,” he said.

Dr Qureshi informed that Dohms recently signed an MoU with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)-UK, whereby the RCGP would be assisting in developing academic links to increase the number of family doctor trainers, besides helping organise educational exchanges between the UK and Dubai.

About his presentation on “Low Back Pain, a Family Practice Review” at the Sharjah conference, Dr Qureshi said that simple backache does not require specialist referral if it is acute in onset. “In certain cases, patients with a definite psychological component to their (usually chronic) pain may benefit from a psychiatric or psychological counselling referral,” said Dr Qureshi.

About long-term backache in women after childbirth, Dr Qureshi said that the prospective search for causative factors overall including in epidural and non-epidural groups around 33 per cent of women developed backache lasting three months after delivery.