The Vatican has launched the first worldwide campaign to recognize the work of doctors and their importance in the dignified treatment of the sick. The SOMOS Community Care Association and the Pontifical Academy for Life joined forces in the "Thank you, doctor" campaign.
The President of SOMOS Community Care, Dr. Ramón Tallaj, insisted that the care offered by a family doctor is more humane. His experience with sick people in the poorest neighborhoods of New York led him to advocate for preventive medicine. He stresses that chronic diseases can only be prevented if there is a constant relationship with a physician who knows the patient's history.
DR. RAMÓN TALLAJ
President, SOMOS Community Care
We understand that we need to go back to that doctor-patient relationship, with the family doctor, the family physician. It is important that they know you—they know your family, they know your parents, they know your children and they have been around for generations. And they are someone who is going to see you in a complete way and you have confidence in them.
The Pontifical Academy for Life has shown its support for this organization. During the opening event, Archbishop Paglia stressed that machines help patients feel better, but they do not cure them completely. For this, it is essential to pay attention to other aspects of their lives.
ABP. VINCENZO PAGLIA
President, Pontifical Academy for Life
Talking about the family physician means recovering that human dimension of the relationship with the patient. This is often more important than the medicine itself. This morning, in the meeting with the Pope, he himself insisted precisely on this: on the importance of the direct relationship.
The “Thank you, doctor” opening event inaugurated the first global campaign to recognize this work of family doctors. SOMOS Community Care has more than 1 million Medicaid patients, with more than 2,500 physicians caring for the sick in New York's neediest neighborhoods, where the migrant community is one of its main patients.
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