Leadership and governance: learning outcomes and competencies required of the family physician in the district health system

Abstract

The South African National Development Plan expects the family physician to be a leader of clinical governance within the district health services. The family physician must also help to strengthen the services through leadership in all his/her other roles as a clinician, consultant, capacity-builder, clinical trainer and champion of community-orientated primary care. In order to deliver on these expectations the nine training programmes must ensure that they prepare registrars appropriately for leadership and clinical governance. Currently training programmes differ considerably in what they teach and in workplace-based training and assessment. This article reports on a national process to reach consensus on what training is required for family physicians in this area. The process outlined the key conceptual principles and competencies required for leadership, clinical and corporate governance; it culminates in a new set of learning outcomes for the training of family physicians.