Acute medical and surgical problems are an important part of the frontline medical practitioners’ daily encounters. This Emergency Medicine Family Practice Skills Course has several objectives namely, to update ourselves on the conditions that we need to make the correct judgment call to refer early, to be aware of the pitfalls that we can avoid, and finally to be confident on what we can safely treat and observe. There is also a need to educate patients on what they need to be on the look out for as their acute problems unfold and seek appropriate emergency attention as the need arises. Patient at risk of cerebrovascular occlusions and coronary artery occlusions also need to be educated on when they should activate the emergency service system to shorten the arrival to treatment time. Finally, it is helpful to be able to give patients the realistic expectations of what is likely to occur at the Emergency Department and to avoid promising a particular outcome to the patient as this will depend on what is found on further assessment. The axiom of “when in doubt refer” is still golden, except that with attending this course, the areas of uncertainty can be reduced as we have a better understanding of the emergent symptoms and signs versus reassuring symptoms and signs that an emergency referral would not be necessary, at least at the initial encounter. Adequate instructions to patients on what to look out for that may need emergency department attention is a must. We have assembled a team of domain experts to both write the units for continuing medical education on the subject as well as to speak in the seminars on the weekend of 5-6 October 2013. The Singapore Family Physician editors would like to place on record our thanks for their efforts. Thanks are also due to the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and Ministry of Health (MOH) for supporting this Family Practice Skills Course. This Emergency Medicine Family Practice Skills Course would be of immense value to you as a CME activity. Do consider attending if you can.