WONCA E-Update
Friday 15th September 2017

WONCA News – September 2017
The latest WONCA News (September 2017) is accessible via the WONCA website, with lots of WONCA news, views and events.

Policy Bite: PHC funding as a percentage of total healthcare spending
This month’s guest policy bite comes from the American Board of Family Medicine and the Robert Graham Center, in the USA. The ABFM is the national certifying board for nearly 90,000 family physicians. The Graham Center is a research center which aims to improve individual and population healthcare delivery through the generation or synthesis of evidence that brings a family medicine and primary care perspective to health policy deliberations from the local to international levels. Both organizations frequently collaborate on research that informs primary health care, population health, and health policy.

Their paper – Primary Health Care as a Foundation for Strengthening Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries –looks at whether primary health care is adequately funded to ensure access, provide protection against catastrophic expenditures, and ensure equitable use of resources.

SIG on Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine
This week we highlight the work of the WONCA Special Interest Group on Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine. This SIG provides a coordinated forum through which WONCA lends its support to improving the quality of care of peoples of the world when they face some of life’s greatest challenges. Prof Rich Withnall (UK), Convener of the SIG, provides the group’s annual report for 2016-2017.

WHO – Patient Safety and Risk Management
The Patient Safety and Risk Management unit at WHO HQ in Geneva has announced the roll-out of their updated patient safety website. The website has been updated to include the most recent WHO initiatives and resources in patient safety. A navigation panel on the left of the page allows for quick access to important content areas, ranging from policies and strategies to education and training to patient engagement. The ‘Publications’ page includes a library of all WHO patient safety publications all accessible from one page, separated into topic areas and chronological order.
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/en/
http://www.who.int/topics/patient_safety/en/

Super Early bird registration for WONCA Rural 2018: New Delhi – DEADLINE EXTENDED
A final reminder that the deadline for super-early-bird registration for the 15th WONCA World Rural Health Conference – planned for New Delhi from 26th to 29th April 2018 – has been extended until 15th September.