Newsletter: May 2018

I am writing this from an intense energetic conference in Nigeria, hosted by one of our member organisations - the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN). This is my first visit to West Africa during my Presidency, having managed countries in North, South and East Africa already. The other equally intense and impressive overseas experience was the IberoAmericana Cumbre and conference in Colombia.

Estoy escribiendo este artículo desde un intenso y enérgico Congreso en Nigeria, organizado por parte de una de nuestras organizaciones miembro – la Asociación de Médicos Generalistas Públicos y Privados de Nigeria. Esta es la primera vez que visito el oeste de África.

J’écris depuis la conférence du Nigeria, conférence intense et énergique présentée par l’une de nos organisations membres - Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN). Ceci est ma première visite en Afrique occidentale au cours de mon mandat.

As a further addition to WONCA Standards, and to enhance quality standards and improvement in family medicine practice, the Secretariat developed a series of Global Standards for Practice Accreditation, in 2017. These standards look at four key areas of practice: practitioners, patients, provider activity, premises

World Family Doctor Day comes again on May 19 - celebrate our special day this year. We have chosen as the key theme “Family doctors – leading the way to better health”. Access resources, see Taiwan's 2018 poster and a message from Canada.

WONCA CEO, Garth Manning writes about World Family Doctor Day coming on May 19.​ Theme : "Family doctors - leading the way to better health" and the President woudl like your examples of activties that demonstrate this theme.

Cuando asistí al Congreso Iberoamericano de la WONCA en Colombia en marzo, también presencié una idea muy novedosa: Diferentes países de la región están colaborando en programas de trabajo y explicando su actividad en el Congreso regional.

When I attended the WONCA Iberoamerica region conference in Colombia in March, I also saw a new idea – different countries in the region all working together on programmes of work, and reporting their work in to the regional conference. This was used to inform delegates, but also to help the leaders in the Executive and the national country leaders in making their policies – useful for discussing issues with stakeholders.

This month we reproduce a blog entry from RuralGP.com written by Dr Steve McCabe who works at the Portree Medical Practice on the Isle of Skye and giving his perspective on rural healthcare… "I work as part of a group practice in Portree, the largest settlement on Scotland’s second largest island, Skye. Skye is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful islands in the world."

The young doctors and medical students of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice 'Rural Seeds" have worked together with young members of the Working Party on the Environment to make an innovative movie "Planetary Health? What is this?"

A CPD programme was organized by the Spice Route Movement (Movement for Young Doctors) of Sri Lanka on February 17, 2018. The evening was attended by a large gathering of enthusiastic general practitioners, both young and young at heart, who were intrigued by the topics.

WONCA East Mediterranean Region (EMR) has planned to meet different ministers of health in our region in order to promote and seek more support to the family medicine specialty. As the first step, delegates from WONCA EMR had a fruitful meeting with His Excellency Prof Mahmoud Al-Sheyyab, the Jordanian Minister of Health

James and Leslie Rourke are the recipients of the WONCA North America Region 5 Star Doctor Award 2017 and Dr Wilson took the opportunity of visiting their province of Newfoundland, to present the award. A joint nomination for the WONCA North America 5-Star Doctor may be unconventional.

Guillaume Charbonneau, MD, President of the College of Family Physicians of Canada writes a message to his colleagues in Canada - Let’s celebrate World Family Doctor Day / Fêtons la Journée mondiale des médecins de famille

The 2017 Ian McWhinney lecture by Dr Larry A. Green from the University of Colorado focused on personal doctoring. It explored whether or not people will have a personal physician anymore. The lecture has been published by Canadian Family Physician and translated into Spanish by Julio Ceitlin.

WONCA has had an application for membership from the Association of Family Medicine of Tajikistan. Dr Greta Ross tells us more about the situation in Tajikistan. In 2017, Greta joined the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s Medical Education Reform project (MEP) in Tajikistan.

President elect Dr Donald Li attended the 5th Cross Straits General Practice Society as officiating guest 30th March - 1st April 2018 in Nanning, China. The theme of the conference was “A New Era of General Practitioners”. The conference was attended by over 2500 general practitioners

Goodfellow Gems​ are chosen by the Goodfellow director Dr Bruce Arroll to be either practice changing or practice maintaining. The information is educational and not clinical advice. ©The Goodfellow Unit. PEARLS -Practical Evidence About Real Life Situations are brief (minimalistic summaries) of Cochrane Primary care systematic reviews with the answer in the title