Newsletter: December 2018

Durante mi inauguración como Presidente prometí, entre otras cosas, continuar defendiendo la Medicina de Familia como un elemento esencial para conseguir la Cobertura Universal de Salud y un sistema sanitario coste-efectivo fuerte. La Declaración de Astana dejó muy claro que todavía queda mucho trabajo por hacer.

在接任主席一职时，我向各位承诺了一系列的工作 : 包括继续倡议家庭医学作为实现全民健康覆盖及建设稳固有效卫生系统的动力。但要使基层医疗为人所知及得到认同，进而成为各国卫生系统的支柱，前路漫长，我们仍须努力。

At my inauguration as President I promised, among other things, to continue to advocate for family medicine as essential to achieving Universal Health Coverage and strong cost-effective health systems. The Astana Declaration made it clear that there is still much to be done for professionally qualified primary care teams to be recognised and acknowledged as the backbone of the primary care delivery system in every country.

Dr Donald Li, a Hong Kong-Chinese family doctor, has taken over the reins as President of WONCA. In addition to his work as a busy family doctor, Dr Li is involved in national and international policy making; he was the first family doctor elected as the President of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine between 2012 – 2016.

Garth Manning reports on the WONCA World Council meeting held In Korea in association with our recent World conference : With a meeting of the WONCA Executive, a WONCA Council and then a brilliant WONCA conference in Seoul It has been an incredibly busy time. He reports on election results, statements approved, other highlights and various presentations.

Presented in Korea were the WONCA Global awards - Honorary Life Membership, WONCA Fellowship, WONCA five star doctor and the Taiwan Family Medicine research award.

Three books written by WONCA leaders have been launched in the past month: Family Practice in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Universal Health Coverage and Quality Primary Care; How To Do Primary Care Research: and Primary Health Care around the World: Recommendations for International Policy and Development.

Our recent world Council meeting sees changes in the membership and leadership of many WONCA committees. Below you will find members lists for the new Executive (pictured above) and the Statutory Committees, as well as the Chairs of Working Parties (WPs) and conveners of Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

On October 18, 2018 The Seoul Declaration of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) on Primary Health Care Strengthening was launched at the WONCA world conference in Seoul, South Korea... "Strong Primary Health Care (PHC) has been recognized as the essential cornerstone to achieve health equity. We fully endorse the inclusion of Family Doctors in the Astana Declaration and we hope that this Declaration leads to lasting benefits for the peoples of the world"

It is with great pleasure that the WHO GCM/NCD Secretariat​ has announced that the Knowledge Action Portal has officially launched. This is a community driven platform for NCD information, interaction and inspiration.

Domingo Orozco-Beltrán, WONCA Special Interest Group on NCDs convener, reports on the General Meeting of the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (GCM/NCD) held in Geneva, 5-6 November 2018.

Alan Abelsohn, past chair of WONCA Working Party on the Environment (WPEnv) reports: Alice McGushin (Vice Chair WPEnv) and I attended the first WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, in Geneva, on 30 October-1 November 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.

We are delighted to invite you to the 24th WONCA Europe Conference that will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia on June 26 - 29, 2019. Abstract Submission Deadline: January 10, 2019. early bird registration ends December 31, 2018.

Dr Jane Frances Namatovu, conference convener reports:​ Plans are well underway for the 2019 WONCA Africa Regional Conference coming to Uganda in June. Our website is regularly being upgraded for more information and contact us by email at woncauganda2019@gmail.com if you are challenged.

Prof Nobutaro Ban provides more information about the WONCA Asia Pacific region conference coming to Kyoto in May 2019. This includes topics for presentations and discussion. Registration is open as are calls for abstracts for workshops presentations etc.

Read the 2019 WONCA Africa region conference welcome message from new WONCA Africa president Shabir Moosa and find out all conference details. Early Bird registration closes December 31 as does abstract submission.

Durante mi inauguración como Presidente prometí, entre otras cosas, continuar defendiendo la Medicina de Familia como un elemento esencial para conseguir la Cobertura Universal de Salud y un sistema sanitario coste-efectivo fuerte. La Declaración de Astana dejó muy claro que todavía queda mucho trabajo por hacer.

At my inauguration as President I promised, among other things, to continue to advocate for family medicine as essential to achieving Universal Health Coverage and strong cost-effective health systems. The Astana Declaration made it clear that there is still much to be done for professionally qualified primary care teams to be recognised and acknowledged as the backbone of the primary care delivery system in every country.

Alan Abelsohn, past chair of WONCA Working Party on the Environment (WPEnv) reports: Alice McGushin (Vice Chair WPEnv) and I attended the first WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, in Geneva, on 30 October-1 November 2018. ​

Prof Val Wass​ OBE, Chair WONCA Working Party on Education, on this month's free access article and her own editorial.

WONCA SIG on Family Violence co-conveners Kelsey Hegarty and Hagit Hagit Dascal-Weichhendler report on activities of the group held recently at the WONCA world conference in Seoul.

Domingo Orozco-Beltrán, WONCA Special Interest Group on NCDs convener, reports on the General Meeting of the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (GCM/NCD) held in Geneva, 5-6 November 2018.

“Family Doctors are core to the delivery of quality care for older people”: Populations worldwide are ageing, and family doctors must be available and able to play a major role in care in their communities for people as they age. The family doctor should be the primary medical care provider for older people covering the full spectrum of older people’s care from health to end stage frailty, including for those in long term care facilities.

We are delighted to invite you to the 24th WONCA Europe Conference that will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia on June 26 - 29, 2019. Abstract Submission Deadline: January 10, 2019. early bird registration ends December 31, 2018.

Dr Jane Frances Namatovu, conference convener reports:​ Plans are well underway for the 2019 WONCA Africa Regional Conference coming to Uganda in June. Our website is regularly being upgraded for more information and contact us by email at woncauganda2019@gmail.com if you are challenged.

A brief report from Asia Pacific region president, Prof Meng-Chih Lee, (Taiwan) listing the new region executive an goals for the coming biennium.

Prof Nobutaro Ban provides more information about the WONCA Asia Pacific region conference coming to Kyoto in May 2019. This includes topics for presentations and discussion. Registration is open as are calls for abstracts for workshops presentations etc.

Read the 2019 WONCA Africa region conference welcome message from new WONCA Africa president Shabir Moosa and find out all conference details. Early Bird registration closes December 31 as does abstract submission.

On June 22 2018, we held the conference on Patient Safety in Primary Care. For the eleventh consecutive year, primary care professionals met in the Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid to analyse, discuss and produce proposals for improvement regarding the equity and sustainability of the health system, as a first step to guarantee a safer healthcare.