VATICAN CITY -- Securing a doctor's appointment may prove even more challenging this week, as over 300 physicians are expected to arrive at the Vatican on Saturday, according to sources from the Holy See. 

  As part of the ‘Thank You, Doctor!’ campaign, the pope will meet with the promotors of the initiative which aims to highlight the vital role of doctors within the health system and society. 

  The initiative was launched at the Vatican in Nov 2023 and quickly gained support from several leading medical institutions, and has since been endorsed by over one million people. Many of these institutions signed the “Rediscover the Family Doctor” declaration which aims to “restore the doctor-patient relationship” by appealing to both social and political stakeholders. 

  This declaration defines these doctors as ‘Good Samaritans’ recognising the role they play “across all five continents, not only in serving as the front line of our healthcare systems, but also when they go above and beyond, transforming themselves into the good Samaritans for every person.”

  The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vicenzo Paglia, echoed this sentiment, “It is certainly a title that honours them, but above all it makes them responsible to humanity in need of care.”

“Medicine cannot be reduced to prescriptions or technologies, even if they are very sophisticated, because men and women can never be considered solely for their illness.” Paglia added

  Francis has previously addressed the diminishing role of the family doctor at an address to the members of the ‘Apoteca Natura’ pharmacists’ network in Nov 2022. He remarked “Unfortunately, for various reasons, the figure of the family doctor has almost disappeared, and the risk is that, in order to privilege ‘excellence’, the good quality of territorial health services is neglected; or that these are so bureaucratised and computerised that the elderly or poorly educated find themselves effectively excluded or marginalised.”

lw