We all need to thank each other this month – which is the start of a new financial and academic year for some, a well-earned holiday period for others, and a really really busy time for the WONCA leadership and Secretariat as we run towards the Seoul conference and the WHO meeting in Astana.
What a busy few weeks!! Since last I wrote I’ve been in Geneva, for World Health Assembly, then on to Krakow for the WONCA Europe conference and then to Warsaw for a meeting of the WONCA Executive. After that it was off to Toronto, to undertake a Program Accreditation visit at University of Toronto, before heading away for some much-needed leave time.
Making a global declaration – how to influence and advocate – I hope all WONCA members reading this will know that in July there was a very short period when the final draft of the “Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care: From Alma-Ata towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals” allowed people to comment on this version.
Prof Christopher Dowrick, chair of Working Party for Mental Health tells us about the latest resource produced by a task group of the Working Party or use by family doctors : “Addressing the needs of patients with Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS)”
For the past two years I have held the position as WONCA Young Doctors’ representative on WONCA World Executive, an opportunity that has proven to be a very inspiring, fulfilling and rewarding experience. Thanks to the possibility of enabling WONCA World Executive working closely with the seven Young Doctors’ Movements (YDMs), we managed to develop new projects and to strengthen the YDMs foundations for future activities in the organisation.
The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and the ABFM Foundation are pleased to announce the establishment of the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care based in Washington, D.C. The Center will be led by Robert Phillips, MD MSPH, who has been named as its founding Executive Director. |