SIG on Workers' Health annual report

Photo: SIG Participation during ICOH2018 World Congress held in Dublín.

Join our SIG
The joint statement of WONCA and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) – the first one ever made together – was released on July 3, 2014, during the WONCA Europe conference in Lisbon, Portugal. It included the pledge that follows.

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) pledge to work with our partner organizations (including WHO and ILO) to address the gaps in services, research, and policies for the health and safety of workers and to better integrate occupational health in the primary care setting, to the benefit of all workers and their families.

As a new SIG we have set course in order to take this pledge into practice.

Main activities undertaken have included aiming to provide resources and support and promote research through presentations and workshops at WONCA conferences.

Photo: SIG Participants during WONCA Europe Congress in Prague.

In this sense, this first year has been a very productive one.

During 2017 Peter Buijs and Frank van Dijk represented our SIG during WONCA Europe Congress held in Prague, developing a Workshop on Workers Health. Meanwhile Garth Manning, Viviana Martinez Bianchi, Carolina Jara and Ezequiel Lopez assisted WONCA CIMF Conference in Perú, where they presented the Workshop on Primary Care and Workers Health.

Finally, our SIG’s outstanding participation during the ICOH World Congress that was held in Dublin in May 2018 deserves special mention. Garth Manning, Frank van Dijk, Peter Buijs and Ezequiel Lopez participated in a Workshop on PHC and Workers Health, with the participation of Dr. Jukka Takala, ICOH President among other distinguished participants.

We renewed our commitment to work together with ICOH and other organizations with the decision to generate a specific agenda and meetings for the discussion of Workers Health.

We continue to have as goals to organize a work conference on basic workers’ health care in PHC settings, trying to continue the work done by WONCA, ICOH, WHO and many other organizations during The Hague Conference in 2011.

We have developed an SIG email Group for enhancing communication between members which can be accessed through our web page. This group already comprises 25 family and occupational health specialists from different regions

We are also present on Twitter at @PCWorkersHealth and also in Linkedin at WONCA Special Interest Group on Workers Health. WONCA Salud de los Trabajadores.

We continue to develop SIG meetings during WONCA- and ICOH Congresses

Conclusion

We continue to recruit and welcome new members from all WONCA regions who wish to work together to strengthen the discipline of Family Medicine with a special interest on Workers Health. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Alma Declaration, Family Doctors must emphasize our passion for Primary Care, reinstalling in that Declaration our renewed commitment to bring medical care as close as possible to where our patients live and work.

Ezequiel Lopez
convenor