In the audience with the participants in the international meeting promoted by “Somos Community Care”, a non-profit association of doctors, Francisco shared moments of “tenderness and familiarity” from his past linked to the family doctor.
Amedeo Lomonaco – Vatican City
“Care and familiarity are two gifts of great value to those who suffer.” Supporting the patient with “a network of affection” avoids the risk that the “machine of bureaucracy and computerization” and “market logic that has little to do with health” are imposed in the fields of medicine. It is the crucial role of the family doctor that is the focus of Pope Francis’ speech to the participants in the international meeting promoted by “Somos Community Care”, one of the associations selected in the United States to promote “Medicaid” health insurance, whose objective is to help low-income people pay for health care.
The Pope: many fond memories of the family doctor
During the audience, the Pontiff shared some family memories. When he was a child, the Pope said, the family doctor and midwife came to his house in Argentina.
“There were five of us, so when that woman arrived with the suitcase, we knew a little brother was coming! “I have very good memories of the family doctor from then”
A particular memory is linked to a specific year, 1942:
“I remember – I was born in ’36 – I remember July 15, 1942, mom was waiting for her room and me and my brothers, my brother had the flu, the doctor came: ‘I’m looking…’. A very nice memory! And he gave us the medicine, it was a cold (…) And then he approached mom, mom was there with dad and he touched mom’s belly and said: “Hey, it’s time! Let’s wait…” And that same afternoon the fourth was born. These memories of tenderness, of the familiarity of the family doctor, are things that I carry with me because at that time things were so, so beautiful!”
Do not leave patients alone
Pope Francis, after greeting the founder of ‘Somos Community Care’, Dr. Ramón Tallaj, and the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, then stressed that the family doctor is a “fundamental figure” because it combines “competition and proximity”. The Pontiff’s speech was developed precisely through these two words: doctor and family. The doctor, said the Pontiff, is “the one who cares” and science “has made great strides.” You can access “therapies unimaginable until a few decades ago” but medicine, Francisco added, is always “above all a human encounter, made of care, closeness and listening.” This “is the mission of the family doctor.”
“When we are sick, in the doctor we look for, in addition to the competent professional, a friendly presence that we can count on, that gives us confidence in our recovery and that, even when this is not possible, does not leave us alone, but continues to look at us in the eyes and assisting us, until the end. Saint Luke – whom Saint Paul calls “the dear doctor”, a colleague of his! – describes Jesus’ actions with the sick in this way: Jesus approached them, entered their homes, spoke to them, listened to them, welcomed them in their suffering and healed them. The family doctor is like this, present, close, capable of providing warmth as well as professional assistance, because he personally knows his patients and their loved ones and walks with them, day by day, even at the cost of sacrifices.
Create a network of affection
Affection is, therefore, an essential trait. It is the second reason why the role of this basic figure in the health system is valuable, which often forms a link between the citizen and the hospital centers.
“The presence of the family doctor, in fact, contributes to surrounding the patient with a network of affection, sharing and solidarity, which goes beyond the diagnostic-therapeutic phase, reinforcing human relationships, making suffering a moment of communion that must be lived together, not only for the good of the patient, but for the good of everyone: the caregiver, the family members, the extended community. This avoids the risk of the suffering person and their loved ones being absorbed by it. the machine of bureaucracy and computerization; or worse, that they end up being victims of market logic that has little to do with health, especially when it comes to elderly and fragile people.”
We are Community Care
Doctors can be “good Samaritans.” “Somos Community Care”, which already in its name combines different horizons using English and Spanish vocabulary, is a network of more than 2,500 doctors. Thanks to it, more than 650,000 patients from mostly disadvantaged communities, including many Asian and Hispanic immigrants, are treated in New York, especially in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn. Together with the Pontifical Academy for Life, this association also promoted the “Thank you, doctor” initiative, presented last November in the Vatican, to raise awareness among public opinion and institutions about the important role of family doctors. The objective, sharing a concern expressed on several occasions by Pope Francis, is to respond to the crisis of the health system in many countries where family doctors lack support and professional recognition. Its role, in fact, is indispensable, especially in social fabrics marked by inequalities and fragility. It is precisely in these contexts, also threatened by what Pope Francis calls “the culture of waste,” that care and familiarity truly honor the noblest spirit of humanity.
