Can J Emerg Med
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Africa's first conference on emergency medicine was held in October 1998 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Attended by 305 delegates from 13 countries, it was an important milestone in the development of Africa, emergency medicine's last frontier. ⋯ A session reviewing the activities of traditional healers was not only terrifyingly revealing, it also upset and offended a segment of the African audience. The conference ended positively with the creation of the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa, a step toward recognition of emergency medicine as a specialty in Africa.
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The rural hospital environment differs from the urban hospital environment in that there are fewer physicians available to share the workload and to help out in an emergency. When a rural physician on call for emergency writes admission orders rather than disturb the patient's family physician, that rural physician accepts full responsibility for the patient until the patient's physician actually examines the patient and assumes care.