Child health surveillance: enlarging the role of the family doctor.

The family doctor looks after the family as a unit of care. This includes not only curative care but also disease prevention and health promotion. One of the areas is child health. He is in an ideal position to participate in child health surveillance as a member of the primary health care team. The tasks involved in child health surveillance include growth monitoring, monitoring of developmental progress, prevention of disease by immunisation, health education, nutrition education, developmental guidance and injury prevention. To meet the expanding role of the family doctor in child health surveillance, he needs adequate training and continuing education.