Family Medicine hosted a CPD Conference at Kopanong Conference Centre, Benoni, from 16 August to 19 August 2018. The event was well attended with over 100 delegates attending the four-day conference.

Delegates travelled from as far away as Australia, Dubai, the UK and Namibia to attend this important conference. General Practitioners to Primary Care Specialist enjoyed discussions and lectures delivered by key opinion leaders from South Africa’s leading hospitals.

Healthcare practitioners must continually update their professional knowledge and skills for the benefit of their patients. To this end the HPCSA has implemented a Continuing Professional Development programme (CPD). Every practitioner is required to accumulate 30 CPD points over a twelve-month period and five of the units must be on ethics, human rights and medical law.

By attending this conference, delegates earned 28 points which University of Pretoria awarded and one to five ethics points by reading and completing 15 questions for each article from Medical Academic. For the full programme one can consult the website of the Department of Family Medicine (CPD Unit - https://www.up.ac.za/en/family-medicine/article/2642794/cpd-unit-of-the-department-of-family-medicine-up). The presentations and power points are freely available.

Overall, doctors responded positively and reported that the event was more than worthwhile as it included comprehensive sessions that addressed current issues in various fields that were relevant to them. The CPD unit will present new courses in 2019 and before the end of 2018 the new programme will be circulated.