WONCA and WHO News

October, 2018

WONCA was represented at the "Global Conference on Primary Health Care", in Astana, Kazakhstan by the President, Immediate Past President, President- Elect, Young Doctor Movement representative, and two Executive Members-at-large. WONCA notes that the Declaration no longer includes the specific mentioning of family doctors or any other members of the primary healthcare teams. The prior public draft did include different disciplines needed in the Primary Health Care (PHC) team, but these have all been removed in the final version signed by Member States. Wehad hoped and strongly advocated for Family Medicine to be specifically included in the declaration.

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.

November, 2017

WHO has announced that Governments endorsed the Montevideo Roadmap 2018-2030 on NCDs as a Sustainable Development Priority at the opening of the three-day Global Conference on Noncommunicable Diseases in Montevideo, hosted by WHO and the Presidency of Uruguay.

November, 2017

The Sixty-Eighth Session of the Regional Office for the WHO Western Pacific (WPRO) 68th Regional Committee was held in Brisbane, Australia 9–13 October 2017. WONCA was repesented by WONCA Executive member Dr Karen Flegg. WONCA submitted four written statements.

November, 2017

WONCA EMR delivered the following statement to the 64th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean held in Islamabad - Pakistan, from 9-12 October 2017

October, 2017

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced his senior leadership team.

October, 2017

Building on the launch of the Global Patient Safety Challenge “Medication Without Harm”, WHO has developed a campaign to increase public awareness of the safety issues related to medication use and the need for safer medication practices. The call for action of the global campaign is “KNOW. CHECK. ASK.”

September, 2017

WONCA's East Mediterranean region (EMR) delegate conducted a meeting with WHO EMRO Regional Director and his team in Cairo, Egypt.The participants agreed about the importance of collaborative work among WHO and WONCA to reorient towards Universal Health Care, and bring family medicine as a vehicle, conducting national workshops will help countries to develop national action plans to scale up family practice working in two parallel paths - the fast track and the long term plans taking into consideration, approaching universities and higher education ministries.

September, 2017

The 67th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe was held in Budapest on 10th - 14th September 2017. WONCA Europe has released a statement on Family Medicine, focusing on the educational needs (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and the policies for retaining and, when necessary, supporting the migration and emigration of family doctors. The statement was delivered by Dr Anna Stavdal, President of WONCA Europe.

September, 2017

The Patient Safety and Risk Management unit at the WHO has recently announced the roll-out of their updated patient safety website.