Newsletter: October 2019

Suite au succès de la conférence WONCA Afrique, le département « Soins de santé primaires Région Afrique » (AFRO) nouvellement formé a créé une dynamique de jour en jour croissante.

Following on from the very successful WONCA Africa conference, the newly formed AfroPHC has built momentum and continues to grow on a daily basis... We should be proud of our growing voice around the world, spreading the message of good quality, professional, family medicine. We will continue to speak out and speak up where we need to.

自WONCA非洲区域会议完满结束后，新组成的非洲基层医疗小组 (AfroPHC) 成员满怀干劲，每天都注入新动力。

Siguiendo desde el exitoso Congreso de WONCA África, el recientemente creado sistema AfroPHC de Atención Primaria ha representado un “momentum” y continúa su proceso de crecimiento día a día.

As I write this I’m in Philadelphia, attending the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) Congress of Delegates – equivalent to our world council. This will then be followed by their annual conference – the Family Medicine Experience (FMX). There’s lots happening in the North American Region in the coming few weeks, so I thought it was a good time to feature this part of the WONCA world.

Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, WONCA Executive Member-at Large and WHO Liaison person was the WONCA Delegate to the UN High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage. September 23, 2019. Now we have a political declaration signed by all member countries of the UN. WONCA invites member organisations to review the declaration

​Amanda Howe, WONCA Immediate Past President, comes to the end of six years on WONCA Executive this coming month. WONCA thanks her for the huge voluntary commitment this represents. Here she reflects on this period of her life.

Dr Sonia Tsukagoshi, the new Vasco da Gama Movement (VdGM) Liaison Officer on WONCA Europe Executive Board , the British-Japanese family medicine physician, was interviewed recently by Pere Vilanova of semFYC.

Donald Li, WONCA President, was recently interviewed by semFYC communications Pere Vilanova. The interview is an edited version of the original Spanish.

Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, WONCA Executive Member-at Large and WHO Liaison person was the WONCA Delegate to the UN High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage. September 23, 2019. Now we have a political declaration signed by all member countries of the UN. WONCA invites member organisations to review the declaration

Seguramente, el de Jan de Maesseneer es un nombre familiar para muchos y muchas de vosotros y vosotras. ¡Él ha sido, desde hace años, uno de los grandes defensores de la Medicina de Familia y continúa estando al pie del cañón a pesar de su supuesta “jubilación”! Estoy muy agradecido de invitar a Jan a contribuir con su punto de vista acerca de las cuestiones más relevante dentro de la Atención Primaria y la Medicina de Familia en el WONCA News de este mes

​Jan de Maeseneer, will be a familiar name to many of you. He has been a staunch advocate for family medicine for many years and continues his interest despite his so-called ‘retirement’! I am pleased to invite Jan to contribute his view about issues of note within primary care and family medicine to this month’s WONCA News

Prof Thomas Kuehlein, WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC) reports:

John Wynn-Jones, chair WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice has provided his final annual report before handing over to Bruce Chater. This is an edited version of the report. The full version will be available in the WONCA Annual report 2018-19:

Prof Christopher Dowrick, chair of the Working Party on Mental Health reports: The aim of the working party is to enhance global equity of access to high quality primary mental health care. Our objectives are to improve internal structures; to offer mental health guidance for WONCA members; and to provide global leadership on primary mental health care.

Issam Shaarani, chair of the Working Party on Ethical Issues reports on activities in the past year.

Pramendra Prasad Gupta, chair of the Working Party on e-Health reports: The aim of the working party is to identify the needs of patients and professionals to ensure relevant patient-focused information and health IT tools are available to all.

In "Education for Primary Care", we offer free access this month to “Spiritual care training and the GP curriculum: where to now?” Appleby et al.

We encourage all family doctors in the world to celebrate together on September 17, 2019, World Patient Safety Day. We all take part to build a safer health system.

​The attached statement on Equity was submitted by Mehmet Ungan, WONCA Europe President, on behalf of WONCA Europe, for WHO Europe RC69: "Promoting Equıty for a Better Quality of Health Care for All Europeans"

More Goodfellow Unit GEMS have been loaded this month. What is a GEM? Gems are chosen by the Goodfellow Unit director Dr Bruce Arroll to be either practice changing or practice maintaining. The information is educational and not clinical advice. ©The Goodfellow Unit, Auckland, New Zealand.