What is ECSACOP

The East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP)

The East Central Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP) is a regional college comprising Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The main purpose of the College is to address the shortage of physicians in the region. East Central Southern Africa College of Physicians is one of the constituent colleges of the ECSA College of Health Sciences ECSA-CHS, established following a resolution passed at the 52nd Health Ministers Conference held in Harare, Zimbabwe 2010 (ECSA/HMC52/R9: Strengthening Partnerships for Health). The purpose of the College is to address the region’s shortage of Internal Medicine specialists. East Central Southern Africa College of Physicians is grateful to the Royal College of Physicians London for support from its inception in 2014-2015. The support has been in capacity building, logistics, and monetary. WHO-AFRO has significantly supported the College in its Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) establishment and maintenance.

The six countries have a population of approximately 250 million inhabitants, with only about 1,000 Internal Medicine specialists. The statistics give a Ratio of 1 physician to 250,000 inhabitants, against the WHO recommendation of 1:1000.

The College was officially inaugurated in 2015, and training commenced in 2018. The College has successfully held eight Scientific and Annual General Meetings since 2016.

It is instructive to note that the few physicians in the ECSACOP region practice mainly in urban centers. The Ethos of ECSACOP is to train physicians close to where they reside, discouraging the migration of young doctors seeking training in traditional urban-based universities and not returning to practice in their rural homes.

The College awards Fellowships through instruction and examinations. Enrolled trainees participate in full-time teaching at approved training institutions. The training sites undergo a rigorous accreditation process conducted by the Accreditation Committee. There were three accredited training sites in the 2018-2019 academic year, and five years later, 2023-2024 academic year, there are 19 accredited training sites. The first cohort of 14 trainees was enrolled in 2018, and the 2023-2024 academic year has a total trainee population of 128 in all the five countries that have commenced training. Tanzania is yet to join. The College is gradually increasing accredited training sites and trainees in line with available resources and maintaining quality training. The training curriculum is delivered through an in-service apprenticeship model in appropriately accredited healthcare facilities. Through this approach, the College strives to harmonize Internal Medicine training across the five countries already training.

The college website provides a robust teaching-instruction format, including the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). In resource-restrained regions like ours, having one training institution with all sub-specialty disciplines in internal medicine, a prerequisite for ideal post-graduate training, is impossible. Faculty is sourced from various sub-specialists from the ECSACOP region, the Royal College of Physicians, and physicians in the diaspora. The College, therefore, appropriately bridges the sub-specialty deficit gap through its adopted Modular learning program.

The College has had two cohorts of graduands; five graduated at Lilongwe Malawi in 2022, and the second cohort of ten graduands was at Victoria Falls Zimbabwe on 1 September 2023

East Central Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP) plans to engage in collaborative research with other colleges and physician associations within and beyond. Collaboration has already started with the RCP London, West African College of Physicians. The College intends to participate in various healthcare activities, developing clinical guidelines and spearheading regional sub-specialty training.

James O. Jowi FRCP, FRCPE, FCP (ECSA)

President ECSACOP

Vision

Healthy communities through access to well-trained physicians

Mission

To improve standards of healthcare throughout the region by providing specialist training for physicians committed to lifelong learning

Our ambition

The East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP) aims to improve access to well-trained physicians across the region by establishing a network of dedicated training centres and implementing an internationally recognized postgraduate medical qualiﬁcation. The College will ultimately improve health outcomes for the region’s >200 million inhabitants, with a focus on expanding healthcare provision in centers serving the rural population.

“Health systems can only function with health workers; improving health service coverage and realizing the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is dependent on their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality.”

— WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION.

WHAT WE DO

ECSACOP is a regional college (currently comprising Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) that seeks to contribute to the resolution of manpower shortages of physicians.

ECSACOP is one of six constituent colleges of the ECSA College of Health Sciences which was established following a resolution passed at the 52nd Health Ministers Conference held in Harare, Zimbabwe 2010 (ECSA/HMC52/R9: Strengthening Partnerships for Health).

ECSACOP was officially inaugurated in 2015 and has thus far held two scientific and annual general meetings in Zimbabwe (2016) and Uganda (2017).

ECSACOP Award – the College awards Fellowship through instruction and examinations. Enrolled trainees participate in full-time instruction in approved training institutions.

The Fellowship (Part 1) examination leads to admission into the final part of training. The Fellowship (Final) examination leads to the qualification of Fellow of the East Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians, FCP (ECSA).

This qualification is recognition that the candidate has reached the level of knowledge and practice of internal medicine sufficient to practice independently at a consultant or specialist level.

ECSACOP Award

Fellowship location	Ecsacop accredited training sites
Type of Fellowship	Full-time
Year of Commencement	September 2018
Length of Fellowship	4 years
Award	Fellow of the East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians
Designation of Award	FCP (ECSA)

A NEW COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

This is a critical, formative time for this fledgling and progressive College – a first for East, Central and Southern Africa, which is locally led and innovative in its approach. ECSACOP is specifically responding to the varying nature of postgraduate training within the ECSA countries, harmonising standards through the introduction of a common curriculum and teaching methodologies.

Allied to this, physicians tend to stay/practice where they train, and the vast majority train in large urban hubs. This means that rural centres tend to be understaffed and disadvantaged in terms of public health resource allocation, meaning patients often end up travelling large distances to access specialist care.

There is no other organisation focusing primarily on developing training centres serving rural populations in this way, and in doing so, increasing access to care for those most in need..

51

Life expectancy of a man in Central Africa.

50%

of births lack the attendance of a skilled health professional.

30%

of medical school faculty posts are vacant.