Newsletter: November 2017

WONCA President Amanda Howe visits Lebanon: Tahaddi clinic is next to one of the main Palestinian refugee camps, and provides health services to a population who live mostly in shanty housing. Over 65% of these patients are Syrian refugees, while the remaining 35% are Lebanese residents of the area.

Uno de los muchos retos de ser médica de familia es el hecho de intentar reconciliar las diferentes visiones del mundo. Como médica de familia, la tensión se produce a menudo entre mis propias creencias acerca de lo que es mejor para el paciente, lo que puede hacer posible el sistema y su visión del mundo.

La présidente visite La Liban. La clinique Tahaddi avoisine l’un des principaux camps de réfugiés palestiniens et apporte ses services sanitaires à une population vivant essentiellement dans des bidonvilles. Plus de 65% de ces patients sont des réfugiés syriens et les 35 % restant sont des résidents libanais locaux.

Greetings again from Bangkok. This month I’ll report on the meeting of the 2016-18 Executive, which took place in Bangkok on 29th and 30th October 2017 - this was the second full meeting of the 2016-18 WONCA Executive and the last meeting for Prof Michael Kidd.

Kim Yu MD from the USA, is one amazing colleague. In just one week after the recent hurricane devastated Puerto Rico, Kim took to Facebook and drove a fundraising effort to help her collegues in Puerto Rico, raising over $62,000 from all the chapters of the American Academy of Family Physicians in just over one week,

Professor Michael Kidd AM (left), WONCA Immediate Past President and Professor Gabriel Ivbijaro MBE (right), a former chair of the WONCA Working Party on Mental Health have been awarded honorary membership of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA).

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.

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

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

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.”

WONCA's next world conference comes to Seoul, Korea from October 17 - 21, 2018. The theme of the conference is “Primary Care in the Future: Professional Excellence," and will cover diverse disciplines of family medicine from the present to the future. For the vision of future family medicine, we plan to offer a dynamic and stimulating array of scientific and practical hands-on programs as well as special events. Find out more.

WONCA Europe conference May 24-27,2018 Krakow, Poland

Early bird registration ends November 8th and abstract submission is now open for the WONCA World Rural health conference coming to New Delhi in April 2018. Anyone can submit their abstract paper in various categories.

WONCA has had a Working Party on Rural Practice for many years. Their vision is “health for all rural people around the world”, and, as for WONCA as a whole, one of the key aims of their advocacy is to ensure governments recognise the importance of family medicine and its rural and remote workforce. It is therefore a source of celebration that Prof Paul Worley, a member of the WONCA Rural Working Party, has been appointed as the first Rural Health Commissioner of Australia

Desde hace muchos años, WONCA tiene un Grupo de Trabajo en Medicina Rural, y este es muy activo – cada año organiza un Congreso mundial, mantiene intensas comunicaciones y presencia en las redes sociales, también tiene una relación muy especial con los Movimientos de Jóvenes Médicos de Familia (Rural Seeds), y ofrece recursos como los recogidos en la Guía Educacional de Medicina Rural. Su lema es el de “salud para la población de los medios rurales en todo el mundo”. Es por esa razón que debemos celebrar el hecho de que el Profesor Paul Worley, miembro del Grupo de Trabajo en Medicina Rural, ha sido elegido como el Primer Comisario de Salud Rural de Australia.

Paola Rava Dellepiane, WONCA Working Party on the Environment member writes more on the issue of WONCA conferences as a very favorable setting to promote the issue of Planetary Health and increase the general awareness for it.

My colleagues Professor Nobutaro Ban (Japan), Dr Eva Irene Maglonzo (Philippines), Victor Ng (Canada), Hashmet Parveen (Brunei) and Chandramani Thuraisingham (Malaysia) joined me to run sessions on (i) The Undergraduate (UG)Curriculum (ii) Continuous Professional Development and (iii) Formative Assessment.

WONCA has had a Working Party on Rural Practice for many years. Their vision is “health for all rural people around the world”, and, as for WONCA as a whole, one of the key aims of their advocacy is to ensure governments recognise the importance of family medicine and its rural and remote workforce. It is therefore a source of celebration that Prof Paul Worley, a member of the WONCA Rural Working Party, has been appointed as the first Rural Health Commissioner of Australia

Prof Christopher Dowrick, Chair of WONCA Working Party on Mental Health, reports: Members of our working party continue to be busy, all round the world. In the Asia-Pacific region, Weng Chin has successful launched our new guidance on Non-drug interventions for common mental health problems during the Pattaya conference this week. I am delighted with this document, and commend it to you.

Paul Worley has just been announced as the first Rural Health Commissioner of Australia. He is not only the first person in Australia to hold this position, but he is probably the first person anywhere in the world to hold such an important, high level government post.

launched at the WONCA Asia Pacific Region Conference this week: "Family doctors’ role in providing non-drug interventions (NDIs) for common mental health disorders in primary care" is a new resource produced by the WONCA Working Party on Mental Health

Prof Val Wass, Chair of the WONCA Working Party on Education reports on the free journal article of the month.

​During the third Vasco da Gama Movement (VdGM) Forum, held in Jerusalem between 14 and 16 September 2016, the VdGM Family Violence Group has presented a workshop in collaboration with the WONCA SIG-FV focusing on how cultural diversity can play a role on the disclosure and follow-up of gender violence.

WONCA's Special Interest Group on Health Equity chaired by William Wong has released its September newsletter.

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.

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

Kim Yu MD from the USA, is one amazing colleague. In just one week after the recent hurricane devastated Puerto Rico, Kim took to Facebook and drove a fundraising effort to help her collegues in Puerto Rico, raising over $62,000 from all the chapters of the American Academy of Family Physicians in just over one week,