‘Everything you always wanted to ask the EXPH ...’
At the second day of the EFPC conference in Barcelona, a ‘Q & A’ session will be organized with the EU Expert Panel on Effective ways of investing in health (EXPH) members Professor Jan De Maeseneer and Dr Sarah Thomson. The EFPC will provide a time-slot of 45 min for any questions that have come to mind while responding to the EXPH preliminary opinion on ‘Definition primary care with emphasis on financing systems and referral systems.’ This EU Public Consultation received a great response from many Primary Care experts throughout Europe. This is promising, and it is rewarding to get Primary Care higher on the agenda of European policy makers. If you want to ask questions, join us in Barcelona! http://www.euprimarycare.org/barcelona/efpc-2014-bi-annual-conference-future-primary-health-care-europe-v-12-sept-barcelona.
WHO, EIP-AHA, ECDC & EMA
Whilst there, you can also attend the sessions of the WHO Geneva, the European Innovation Partnership programme on Active Healthy Aging (EIP-AHA), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The contribution of WHO Geneva will focus on the new WHO report on Adolescent health and the competences of primary care professionals in this respect, presented by Ms Valentina Baltag. The EIP-AHA will explain their role in the collection of good practices of integrated care, emphasizing the need for more examples from Community oriented integrated primary care initiatives. ECDC will put the spotlight on the need for clear health promotion and disease prevention messages within the primary care setting for hard-to-reach groups in the society. Finally, the EMA session will focus on the input from primary care professionals related to their role in safe and rational use of medicines. The EMA head of department for Patients and Healthcare professionals, Ms Isabelle Moulon will take part in the EMA workshop to stimulate the creation of a Network of Primary Health Care in the European Medicines Agency (EMA)—a new EFPC Working Group chaired by Dr Walter Marrocco from Rome, Italy.
7th Framework Programme projects
Furthermore, 7th Framework Programme projects will be present, like ProFound—with the latest developments on fall-prevention; IMPLEMENT—on the Implementation of chronic care improvements; and QUALICOPC sessions—with first results on the comparative analysis of European primary care systems related to costs. There will be several country presentations from Finland, Germany, Turkey, Austria and Greece. For the topic of fall-prevention, EFPC will create a new working group, to be chaired by Ms Marije Bolt, Dutch Occupational Therapist and EFPC advisory board member.
Integration of primary and secondary care
Finally, we have the continuing support of the International Hospital Federation (IHF), after our first joint effort last year in Istanbul, in discussing the challenges and achievements in integrated care. The Catalan members of IHF will present three case studies: one based on the development of technological tools for continuity and integrated care; another presenting a model based on functional integrated work, where primary care manages specialized care support; and a third example of primary care teams with full clinical autonomy, which have developed different models of integrated work with other health care providers.
Pre-conference and dinner on Sunday 31 August 2014
Last, but not least, we can offer you a delightful pre-conference on Sunday 31 August 2014, including a Primary Care Experience Workshop at the Primary Care centre CASAP in the community of Castelldefels. There will be several sessions on organizational structure, community involvement and involvement of local authorities. The pre-conference will end with a high-level networking dinner and drink at the beach of Castelldefels. Trevor Carr, CEO of our Australian partners within the International Federation of Community Health Centres will give a short presentation. http://www.euprimarycare.org/barcelona/pre-conference-sunday-31-august.
Looking forward to see you all in Barcelona.