Royal College of Physicians / London – Iraq Members and Fellows Network project

Hilal Al Saffar

doi:10.7861/fhj.9-2-s52

Background

Health service provision as well as medical education can face challenges in countries at times of instability, whether political or economic, which necessitates extraordinary actions to bridge the gap.

Aim

To create and build networks of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) members and fellows in Iraq and link them with interested members and fellows in the UK to improve the quality of medical education and health service provision. Also, inclusion of medical students and newly graduated doctors to create new leaders.

Establishing the network

After getting approval from the vice president of RCP Global, an announcement was made through personal social media supported by a letter from RCP Global to members and fellows in Iraq. Forty fellows and 70 newly graduated doctors and medical students volunteered to work on this project. Four subgroups were created: medical education, scientific activities, medical training initiative and research.

Fig 1.

Participants involved in the Royal College of Physicians / London – Iraq Members and Fellows Network project.

Fig 2.

2022 programme.

What has been achieved so far?

Two training courses were delivered (medical education – six modules, and capacity building in medical research – five modules) and attended by 140 and 100 respectively, very positive feedback was received from participants.
There was a tenfold increase in the numbers of doctors and medical students who registered on the RCP website, and Iraq now ranks sixth globally in the numbers of RCP fellows.
There were 2,500 hits to the network Facebook page.
An educational website has been created and an ambitious programme is planned for 2022, including around 30 educational activities.

Conclusion

Creating local networks, which brings fellows working together, may be a useful tool to improve medical education and health service provision in different areas of the world and will be in line with the main RCP mission to drive improvements in health and healthcare through advocacy, education and research.