Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Stellenbosch University

The PHCFM has now completed its special collection of CPD articles for planetary health. Please visit the collection and think about how you might embed these topics into your own CPD programmes. Mandisa Tenego has published an article on how community-orientated primary care can help communities develop more climate resilience and address the environmental determinants of health, based on her experience in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Bob Mash has also published an editorial to introduce the whole series:

Ndlovu-Tenego MA, Mash R. Building community climate resilience: A guide for primary care providers. Afr J Prm Health Care Fam Med. 2026;18(1), a5482. https://doi.org/10.4102/ phcfm.v18i1.5482
Mash RJ. Including planetary health in continuing professional development. Afr J Prm Health Care Fam Med. 2026;18(1), a5524. https://doi.org/10.4102/ phcfm.v18i1.5524

Bob Mash has been attending the International Primary Care Respiratory Group Conference in Tunisia. This group celebrated its 25th anniversary of championing education and research for respiratory problems in primary care - for example asthma, COPD, lung cancer, occupational diseases, air pollution and climate change. The conference included the whole primary care team with doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists. I was invited as the World Organization of Family Doctors - WONCA Africa Regional President. In LMICs, they are collaborating on work in South America and Asia but have no real footprint as yet in sub-Saharan Africa. I was also able to meet the organisations for family doctors from Algeria and Tunisia that are interested in joining WONCA.

Congratulations to Christian on having his article published in the Weekend Argus. A well-deserved achievement and an important contribution to the climate change conversation

Why climate change is a health emergency: An urgent call to action on World Environment Day As climate change emerges as the foremost health threat of our time, this article underscores the urgent need for action, especially in light of recent IPCC findings.

The June e-workshop took place on the 4th, titled "Training in a busy clinical setting: How to make the most of your time." and hosted by Prof Hanneke Brits.

https://primafamed.sun.ac.za/2026/06/08/training-in-a-bu…ost-of-your-time/ (full presentation in post)

https://youtu.be/PrdhewMhZHo

See this powerful op ed by Sheena Mathews the Vice President of the South African Academy of Family Physicians - SAAFP on the plight of family physicians in private practice. If medical aids refuse to recognise their specialist status, scope of practice and remuneration issues through dialogue over many years then in my view we need to turn to more adversarial and legal options.

Meet the specialist your medical aid won't pay for - Bhekisisa Specialist family physicians complete the same type of postgraduate training as paediatricians, psychiatrists and surgeons. So why do private medical aids limit their ability to practice what they trained for?

The PHCFM journal are publishing a special collection of CPD articles to enable people and programmes to include planetary health in their continuing professional development. This one outlines an approach to evaluating climate resilience and environmental sustainability of health facilities and developing a feasible action plan. In the photo (on the right) you will see the two authors, Bob Mash and Trish Schwerdtle, visiting the Cederberg subdistrict in the West Coast to perform the evaluation of primary care facilities. Also in the photo are Christian Lokotola and Melissa McRae. Read the article at https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v18i1.5445

We had a visit from the ECLiPSA team - a project that we are collaborating with to improve pathways to lung cancer diagnosis in South Africa. Seen here are Patrick Redmond from the Department of General Practice at the RCSI in Ireland, and Sarah Day and Aliyha Martin-Lewis from University of Cape Town the local leads. Bob Mash is a collaborator on the project.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0F0BBY87TSrUYXkKHs3Xvs?si=h0H63yjiTKW4_i59u2FMPw An excellent interview with Ts’epo Motsohi and Michelle Allen, valuable and contemporary insights 🤩

S3E2 - Family and Emergency Care - Dr Ts'epo Motsohi & Dr Michelle Allen BadEM · Episode

Dr Frances Erasmus presenting on the next SU/UCT research project evaluating palliative care services.