Regional News

June, 2018

WONCA Europe and its teaching organization EURACT have produced several important documents on a common definition and description of the GP/FM specialty. These documents support the recognition of GP/FM and improvement in the quality of specialty training schemes in addition they promote international collaborations.

June, 2018

WONCA Europe under the leadership of Prof Johann Sigurdsson (from Iceland and Norway) have developed and endorsed a "Position Paper on Overdiagnosis and Actions to be Taken".

June, 2018

Dr Anna Stavdal, WONCA Europe president reports on recent WONCA Europe Council endorsements:- two equity statements, the Overdiagnosis /Overtreatment position paper, and papers on Training Requirements for GP/FM, as well as Quality in family medicine.

June, 2018

Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari was appointed as WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean by WHO’s Executive Board at its 143rd session and assumed office on 1 June 2018.

April, 2018

A CPD programme was organized by the Spice Route Movement (Movement for Young Doctors) of Sri Lanka on February 17, 2018. The evening was attended by a large gathering of enthusiastic general practitioners, both young and young at heart, who were intrigued by the topics.

April, 2018

WONCA East Mediterranean Region (EMR) has planned to meet different ministers of health in our region in order to promote and seek more support to the family medicine specialty. As the first step, delegates from WONCA EMR had a fruitful meeting with His Excellency Prof Mahmoud Al-Sheyyab, the Jordanian Minister of Health

April, 2018

James and Leslie Rourke are the recipients of the WONCA North America Region 5 Star Doctor Award 2017 and Dr Wilson took the opportunity of visiting their province of Newfoundland, to present the award. A joint nomination for the WONCA North America 5-Star Doctor may be unconventional.

March, 2018

MRCGP (Int) will provide a grant amount of USD 2500 per year to support young GPs of The Spice Route movement in certain educational activities.

January, 2018

Dr Veena Kumari was a 2017 Montegut Scholarship winner for the WONCA South Asia Region. She has recently taken up a new job as an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine in Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan. Dr Kumari attended the South Asia region conference in Nepal from 24-26 November 2017 as well as The Spice Route pre conference. Here she reports on her experience.

January, 2018

Anna Stavdal of Norway, President of WONCA Europe, is interviewed by Pere Vilanova of the Spanish Society of Family Medicine, semFYC. Topics include Family medicine in Norway and Europe and the recent WONCA Europe statements on refugees and planetary health. This is an edited English version of that interview.