EURIPA (European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association) was formed in Palma, Mallorca in the spring of 1997. It has developed as an effective network, representing rural practitioners across Europe. EURIPA has succeeded in raising the profile of rural health and in promoting the development of academic rural health centres in Europe.
Rural GPs often work at the periphery of health care systems. Evidence shows that they take on a wider range of activities as part of their everyday work. Peripherality means that patients and professionals may have difficulty engaging with secondary and tertiary care, leading to problems of access, isolation and disenfranchisement.
Despite the efforts of EURIPA much work still needs to be done to promote rural health and rural practice across Europe. As a consequence, EURIPA is hosting a European Invitational Forum in Rural Health, which will bring important rural stakeholders together from across Europe in order to share ideas and good practice and develop a pan-European Rural Health Strategy for the twenty-first century. Significant threats exist for rural communities and rural health care and there needs to be a strategy to cope with them.
The Forum aims to:
• Develop a Rural Health Strategy for Europe
• Forge links across Europe between rural practitioners, academic departments, academicians and national colleges and associations
• Create networks
• Share good practice
• Extend the scope and influence of EURIPA
• Identify key individuals and groups who are not yet involved with European rural health
• Develop links with other rural health organizations, e.g. IAAMRH
• Learn from experiences outside Europe
The meeting will explore four central themes mirroring those of WONCA Europe:
• Research
• Education and training
• Quality in practice
• Engagement in the policy process
This will be a European wide event and EURIPA is hoping for delegates to participate from across the continent. However, places will be limited in order to make the Forum a manageable size, to ensure that all delegates will have an opportunity to participate and also to make it a cohesive event able to reach decisions.
If you have a suggestion for the Organizing Committee or should like to propose a colleague or a Rural Health expert from your country as a participant, please do not hesitate to contact us but please do so as soon as possible in order to assure their participation as places are limited.
Please register your interest in attending as soon as possible by contacting Jose M López-Abuin at [email protected] or John Wynn-Jones at [email protected], Joint Chairs of the Forum.
EURIPA has worked to keep the cost down as low as possible at €100 (early payment) and €150 (late payment). More information will shortly become available on the website (www.institutodesaludrural. org), which will be regularly updated with the latest information.