The European Forum for Primary Care (EFPC) was established almost 10 years ago to fulfil a role in getting the message for investing in Primary Care widely accepted in the European region. The communication based on a Health Systems approach has been effective; nowadays EFPC representatives are present throughout Europe, successfully emphasizing the importance for investment in Community Oriented Primary Care. In order to provide an update we are listing the recent activities of EFPC (Board) members in this respect:
Mehmet Akman, Turkish EFPC advisory board member was present at the WHO-Euro 63rd regional meeting in Izmir, 16–17 September 2013.
Diederik Aarendonk, EFPC coordinator provided a key-note at the International Chief Health Professional Officers conference in Edinburgh, 3 October 2013.
Pim de Graaf, EFPC executive board member (treasurer) provided a key-note on the 7th biennial Primary Health Care department conference on 8 October 2013 in Malta on ‘Optimizing the Delivery of Primary Health Care in Malta’.
Jan De Maeseneer, EFPC president led a plenary session on ‘Tackling Europe's major health challenges: Health systems strengthening for better health outcomes’ at the WHO Health systems for health and wealth in the context of Health 2020 meeting in Tallinn, 17 October 2013.
Niro Siriwardena, EFPC advisory Board member provided a key-note at the ENOTHE (European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education) conference in York, 17 October 2013.
In the meantime, we have been able to celebrate the election of Professor Jan De Maeseneer, our president, as the chair of the EU Health Expert Panel. This decision was taken on 24 October 2013, after a second voting round among the panel members. Professor Bengt Jönsson from Sweden was elected as the vice-chair. The Expert Panel will provide advice to the European Commission on effective ways of investing in health. The Expert Panel consists of 12 members, who were appointed on 21 May 2013 for a period of three years. The members are well-established independent scientists appointed in their personal capacity with extensive (more than 10 years) professional and multi-disciplinary experience in the fields of health planning and budget prioritization, health services research, hospital and healthcare management, healthcare provision and health education and promotion.
We continued our efforts in November 2013 with our presence at several other important meetings:
Jan De Maeseneer and Peter Groenewegen, EFPC Executive Board members, contributed to the WHO celebration of 35 years Alma Ata Health for All declaration in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 6 November 2013.
Arnoldas Jurgutis, our Lithuanian EFPC member, represented the EFPC at the high level ‘Sustainable Health Systems for Inclusive Growth in Europe’ EU conference in Vilnius on 19–20 November 2013.
Pavlos Theodorakis and Maria Magnusson, Greek and Swedish EFPC members provided important contributions to a workshop ‘Access to Health’ at the second day of the EU Poverty Convention in Brussels on 27 November 2013. This convention is an initiative of Directorate General Employment and was opened by José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy to make clear the relevance of this meeting and the interest from the European Commission to tackle poverty issues.
Please stay tuned with these efforts and provide input on specific issues for communication to policymakers at EU and WHO level.
EFPC conference on 1–2 September 2014 in Barcelona
Our next EFPC conference is on 1–2 September 2014 in Barcelona, with the title ‘Linking Population Health and Primary Care’. A call for abstracts is open now with a deadline for submission on 1 May 2014. http://www.euprimarycare.org/barcelona/call-abstracts