WONCA Executive Meets WHO in London

Photo: WONCA Executive with Dr. John Fogarty WHO.

At the end of September 2024, WONCA World Executive Committee held a face-to-face meeting at the Royal College of GPs in London. This venue was chosen because not only is it the cheapest city for us all to reach in terms of airfares, but it also has the lowest carbon footprint, especially when the president is already in Europe.

This Executive meeting was remarkable in that Dr. John Fogarty, primary care leader of the WHO and our liaison person in the WHO, attended the meeting for half a day. I believe that is a first for the WONCA Executive, and we must thank John for making the effort to come to London.

The WONCA Region Presidents each gave a short presentation on the activities in the region with the WHO. A summary of these is as follows:

Africa Region

President Jane Namatovu reported on engagements with WHO to enable them to understand the contextual issues in the region, including a workshop to help improve the quality of care delivery in health facilities and the WHO AFRO regional meeting. There is ongoing advocacy for several activities, including a project on three proposed WHO collaborating centres on PHC in the African region: at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Makerere (Uganda), and Benin.

Meetings are ongoing with Hyppolite Kalambay Ntembwa, who has the PHC portfolio at WHO AFRO, and recently a meeting with Constance Assohou-Luty, who is responsible for collaborating centres at WHO AFRO. In Geneva, ongoing engagements are about the Special Programme on PHC, which officially ended in August 2024, and the hope is that the MOU with WHO Geneva will be signed imminently. This needs support from WHO AFRO.

We are preparing for the upcoming 2025 PHC conference. WONCA Africa still needs support from WHO through its country offices to support Family Medicine both in training and practice institutions.

Asia-Pacific Region (APR)

President Brian Chang noted that WPRO Director Piukala and he have met several times, including on World Health Day this year. They have agreed on closer collaboration for the future, aiming to deliver the best healthcare for the people in this region. This year, Brian has received an invitation to the 75th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific coming up in October 2024. WONCA APR intends to share the WONCA statement on NCDs and deliver the concepts of the WONCA APR Singapore Declaration of Planetary Health.

East Mediterranean Region (EMR)

President Abdulaziz Almehrazi spoke of the WHO Regional Diploma Collaboration launched in 2022. It is a collaborative effort between WHO EMRO, WONCA EMR, and the Arab Board of Higher Specialisation. This diploma program is a 24-month program tailored for GPs in the EMR and Arab countries, equipping them with essential knowledge, skills, and competencies to provide comprehensive and high-quality health care.

The curriculum is designed in alignment with the standards set by globally recognized bodies, including WONCA. Initially, 35 tutors underwent a Train-the-Trainers program, and 129 students from nine countries were selected for the course. Now Abdulaziz believes that we need governments to empower family physicians and to increase the resources for training of family physicians in the region.

Europe Region (WE)

President Shlomo Vinker noted that WONCA Europe was represented in the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. At this meeting, Prof Zalika Klemenc Ketiš delivered a statement “Shortage of European primary care workforce,” co-signed by a significant number of other European NGOs with an interest in this topic.

The WHO-WONCA Workplan

Our WONCA executive liaison person, Maria Pilar Astier Peña, made a presentation on the "WHO-WONCA Work Plan 2025-2027." This focuses on supporting WHO's efforts to strengthen Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by promoting strong primary care with family medicine values and by improving access to quality essential health services and enhancing patient safety in primary care settings.

Key action areas are:

• Supporting the development of comprehensive primary care services, which involves defining essential materials and human resources, providing detailed feedback, and offering guidance for adapting the primary care services package to different health systems in the world.
• Fostering patient safety improvements through contributions to the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030, focusing on primary care, providing expert recommendations, and advocating for patient safety through global awareness and promotional efforts in primary care facilities.
• Enhancing workforce development and growth through improved clinical decision-making tools, alignment with the ICPC-3, and the development of standardised postgraduate family and community medicine programs for health workers.

Dr. Fogarty updated us on projects of the WHO in which WONCA input and collaboration would be of value. We hope to have input into training programs under the Integrated Management in Primary and Acute Care Training (IMPACT) initiative, alignment of clinical tools with international standards, and curriculum development for family medicine.

All agreed it was a valuable half day, enabling Dr. Fogarty to meet and get to know the WONCA World leadership team.

Our seven region presidents continued their hard work by considering the aspects of WONCA’s Strategic Plan that can be worked on in their regions.

Thank you to my WONCA World Executive team and the WONCA staff team (who also presented on their area of work) for two days of strong action and hard work on WONCA’s behalf.

Karen Flegg
WONCA President
Maria Pilar Astier Peña
WONCA liaison person to WHO