From the CEO's desk: quiet time reflections

Photo: Young Doctors meet in Prague.

It’s always a fairly quiet time of year, and with fewer things to report on than usual. That’s not to say that life in the Secretariat gets much quieter, as there are always many things to work on, but much of the northern hemisphere goes on holiday, and so our volume of e-mail traffic shows a welcome reduction.

Annual Report

The key work ongoing at the moment is the WONCA annual report for the period July 2016 to June 2017. Of course, this period includes World Council and Conference, with a changeover in Executive and in many other leadership positions. Submissions have been received from most regions, committees, Working Parties, Special Interest Groups and Young Doctor Movements, and Nongluck and I are working hard to collate the inputs and design and produce the final copy. We hope to have this finished by early September, when it will be published on the WONCA website for all to read.

I know that many members find it a useful document, to update themselves on all that has been going on in WONCA over the past 12 months, and many of our partners – in WHO, in Organizations in Collaborative Relations and other informal partners –also find it beneficial so please do access it once it’s been released.

WONCA Europe conference

WONCA returned to Prague for the third time in 20 years for this year’s WONCA Europe conference and, as ever, a great time was had by all who attended. It was great to see so many young family doctors there, making up around 1/3 of the total participants, and as well as the Vasco da Gama pre-conference there were also many YDM-led sessions throughout the event. Our WONCA Editor, Karen Flegg, has captured many of the moments on camera, and an album of photos from Prague can be accessed here.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Growing together in diversity” and at the conference WONCA Europe developed and endorsed the Prague Statement: Growing together in diversity for the benefit of all Europeans”. The full statement can be accessed on the WONCA website.

Photo: WONCA leaders Dr Maria van den Muijsenbergh (SIG Migrant Care, International Health & Travel Medicine) and Prof Chris Dowrick (Working Party on Mental Health ) run a joint workshop in Prague.

WONCA and IPCRG

Also at the conference in Prague, WONCA President, Professor Amanda Howe, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) jointly with Dr Jaime Correia de Sousa, President of IPCRG (International Primary Care Respiratory Group). IPCRG is already an Organization in Collaborative Relationship with WONCA, and the MOU formalises and highlights specific areas of joint work and collaboration. In particular, it has been agreed that IPCRG will, in effect, act as a WONCA Special Interest Group on respiratory issues. You can find more n a separate article in this edition of WONCA News:.

Future conferences

August is a surprisingly busy month for WONCA events, with both the Africa Region and Iberoamericana-CIMF Region hosting events. The Africa Region conference will take place in Pretoria, South Africa, from 18th to 20th August whilst the Iberoamericana-CIMF conference will be in Lima, Peru, from 17th to 19th August. Both will feature a young doctor pre-conference. In view of the clash of dates, Amanda Howe will attend Pretoria whilst I will go to Peru. We will report back on both events in the next WONCA News.

And a brief reminder that November is also busy. The Asia Pacific Region will hold it conference in Pattaya, Thailand, from 1st to 4th November whilst the South Asia Region conference is in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 25th and 26th November. Full details of all events are on the WONCA website.

Until next month.

Garth Manning CEO