As you are aware that the Academy of Family Physicians of India (AFPI), a professional academic organization founded with the aim of promoting family medicine and primary health care in India has been relentlessly making efforts to unite medical professionals across the country for strengthening quality medical primary care services to the people. The academy currently has a membership base across India, and the members include family medicine specialists, practicing family physicians, general practitioners and medical officers, who provide quality primary medical care across all age groups, genders, and organ systems.

Taking into cognizance the profound impact of the covid19 on the lives of people and the positive efforts of the governments and medical professionals, the AFPI strongly believes that there is an immediate need to critically examine the issues and challenges that emerged during the pandemic. Inadequate testing kits, PPEs, supportive equipment, shortage of trained medical staff, doctors, oxygen supply, ICU beds, ambulances, the regular transfer of the patients from the rural areas to the cities, overcrowding of the patients in the tertiary care hospitals, limited access to the hospital care, the closure of non-covid health care services, exorbitant charges at the private hospitals and lack of disease surveillance mechanisms are few to mention in this context. We also witnessed food insecurity, joblessness, loss of daily wage earnings, disruption of supply chains, slow down of the economy, leading silently into a gravest humanitarian crisis.

From the above devastating and catastrophic experiences, we understand that the present health care system could not provide a timely, effective and safe supportive health care to the people. Excessive focus on the hospital-based health services during the past several decades, resulted in the weakening of the primary health care. The much-acclaimed Indian Public Health Standards and policies couldn’t rescue and save the lives of innocent people. The systematic neglect and marginalization of primary health care services and very low spending has worsened the public health system in our country. The destructive covid-19 pandemic has now highlighted the need for creating a strong integrated health care system on the foundations of an efficient and quality primary care and robust public health measures.

No doubt the primary care physicians played a decisive role in addressing the challenges and issues emerging during this pandemic. Family medicine, as a discipline of knowledge and professional practice, has abundant and rich potential to extend quality primary health care services to people. Family physicians as the front liners of the medical care system can emerge as the critical and organic players in promoting quality health for all and also create spaces for sustainable development and wellbeing of the people. Most importantly, the contemporary research and increasing knowledge base of Family Medicine and its expanding transformational professional practices are going to radically impact and significantly contribute for preparing, training and delivering critical human resources and personnel at different levels of care. Considering the prospective disciplinary possibilities of Family Medicine, the Academy of Family Physicians of India invites medical professionals across the disciplines and specialties to debate and discuss various issues concerned to family medicine, primary care, including curricular, teaching, and training models, public health standards, and policy frameworks.