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Council meeting - Barcelona, Spain, October 2001 Report of the Meeting

Council Reports Contents

Wednesday 10 October 2001

Session 1: EURACT Council open meeting with Spanish teachers

On behalf of the board of the Spanish Association of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC) Dr. Juan Mendice welcomed all the participants and wished the participants a successful debate. He introduced his Spanish colleagues – teachers in family medicine. Dr. Dolores Forés explained the purpose of this session which was devoted to the exchange of experiences between Spanish and other European teachers. The Spanish teachers presented an overview of the situation and development of the discipline, including a discussion on the new assessment methods they are developing. The first Session ended with general discussion.

Session 2: Country reports, “5 minutes 1 slide”

The President of EURACT – Dr Justin Allen, opened the session. Country reports were distributed and read. Due to the presence of two new members, all Council members briefly introduced themselves. Next the new members – Dr. Anders Baerheim from Norway and Dr. Ivana Bogrova from Czech Republic – introduced themselves and described briefly general practice in their countries, pointing out their own role in this field. Afterwards the Council members addressed several detailed questions related to the specific country reports. Several comments concerned the crisis in vocational training and the crisis of the position of family medicine in numerous countries, especially those outside EU, where, after initial enthusiasm, the opposition of other specialists is growing. The potential action to overcome this problem was discussed.

“5 minutes 1 slide”

• Dr. Egle Žebiene presented the Business Plan of the Member Service committee and the way in which the candidates to EURACT sponsorship for Riom and Bled Courses were selected. 5 doctors for each course were financially supported. There were clear criteria and the priority was given to the developing countries on the basis: one place for one country. This action is regarded as successful and probably should be continued. The issue is going to be discussed during the SWOT analysis session.
• Dr. Justin Allen presented the issue of the Website which is not up to date. At the moment it is based on the voluntary work of Dr. Yonah Yaphe. The idea to appoint the deputy web-master or to employ a technician on a more regular basis was considered. There is a possibility that the Web-master from the Bergen University can help in this matter. Dr. Baerheim is going to explore this.
• Dr. Bernardina Wanrooij updated the knowledge of the Council about the Teaching Cancer Care Network. The Network is still working and producing documents and other publications (morphine prescription, euthanasia in Europe) although facing a lot of practical problems (failure of European funding application). If these are not resolved she may not be able to continue to attend.
• Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic reminded Council about the course for teachers in Dubrovnik which is still continuing. This is an independent course, however of great interest to EURACT. Individual Council members might contribute as independent experts. Next year for instance the course will be related to a conference on the status of academic departments. There would be a possible space for EURACT, however is it not completely clear what our role would be. A decision on this was postponed to the EB meeting.

Thursday 11 October 2001

Session 3: Business meeting

• The President briefly reminded the decisions from the previous meeting. There were no objections from the Council. The Eger report was approved.
• The contribution of EURACT to London 2002 WONCA Conference was discussed. Due to the high costs of the Conference only 13 Council members declared their participation in the Conference. Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic declared she works with her colleagues on the topic “How to deal with strong emotions”. The Council decided to launch it as a EURACT workshop. Dr. Paula Vainiomäki is going to present a workshop on CME and QA. Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis wants to give a workshop on “The Role of GP in palliative care”.. Dr. Yonah Yaphe is developing a workshop on “Matching teaching and learning styles”, and another subject would be “Teaching from the patient viewpoint”, which would be prepared by Dr. Justin Allen. Dr Dolores Forés is considering the topic related to the teaching from the doctors point of view, working with Dr Ivar Østergaard. Dr. Arthur Hibble proposed the workshop on the assessment of hospital training. All the proposals were approved as EURACT workshops.
  
  “Outcomes of international collaboration” was suggested by Prof. Muharem Zildzic in which reports of collaborative projects were presented. It was suggested that this required further work but could be presented as a series of free standing papers.
  
  Prof. Jan Heyrman proposed to prepare a poster on the EURACT achievements. The proposal was accepted. It was decided that responsible people would produce 15 lines' abstracts to be taken by the President to the Scientific Committee of the Conference.
• Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis presented the overview of current financial situation of EURACT. He started from the point that many Council members did not provide the information about the fees collected. In general, our income is bigger than expenses. We do not spend much money in activities like projects. There are high costs for reimbursement of travel expenses of the Council members. These issues need further consideration. The treasurer report is available in Annex 2.
• There were applications of new members from the following countries: Italy – 7, Germany – 1, Israel – 1, Russia – 3, Turkey – 5, UK – 1, Bosnia – 3. The new members were approved. The list of new members is available in Annex 6.
• German members transferred money and there was an election to the Council. Dr. Stefan Wilm was elected as the national representative. Still there is no Portuguese representative. There are fees collected in Russia and we can expect the Russian representative to join the Council. There is no news from Ukraine and Malta.
• Dr Margus Lember presented a paper on the accreditation of teachers which is a result of the work of the Standing Committee on VT. This document still needs comments from the Council members and some language corrections, then it will be put on the Web-site and printed in the form of booklet to be distributed amongst EURACT members and made available to a wider audience, e.g. through the EURACT booths at the conferences.

Session 4: SWOT analysis – setting EURACT priorities

The Core Content Conference in Barcelona was an important event for which EURACT worked over last two years. The task is just about to be completed. A new strategy is needed. A SWOT analysis paper produced by the president was presented as a basis for discussion. The topic was discussed in five groups led by EB members (see Annex 3). The groups reported back to the Council.

Group I: EURACT needs to produce more documents supporting developments in the discipline. There should be more publicity for EURACT. Task forces should continue and complete their proposed t products. There should be a kind of “rolling course” developed using a team of teachers instead of individuals. We can apply for European projects' money. This could give a chance for continuation and spreading the effects. Another issue would be promotion of research projects, some of them could be done in collaboration with other networks.

Group II: There is a need to produce more documents. These can serve as a pattern for national solutions. We probably have high credibility which we can use to benefit the local situation. Our relationship to individuals is seen as an advantage, but a way to reach the teaching organisations must be found, and our products must be promoted. The rolling course is a good idea and should be developed further. The focus should be also on the long-term dissemination of our work, e.g. if we support members in going to Riom or Bled, we probably should expect those who were supported to spread their knowledge and experience. The Council members should offer themselves as resource persons for local teaching organisations and also to make links with external partners in other countries.

Group III: EURACT should fight for better recognition in medical societies. This can be achieved by providing information more intensively, the involvement of national organisations in the selection of representatives, and by EURACT sessions organised for a local audience. Our efforts should be focused on organisations (colleges and departments). Better influence on the quality of teaching in different European countries should be achieved by the translation of EURACT documents into local languages. These documents should contain less idealistic statements and more practical solutions (outcomes oriented). EURACT national representatives should try to enrol member at all the university departments in their countries. To overcome some of our practical internal problems, we should consider the organisation of one Council meeting in the connection with the European WONCA meeting and the second one only for ourselves (one day shorter). We should try to produce outcomes during the meetings and to delegate more competencies to EB and not to waste time on administrative decisions.

Group IV: An additional strength should be our position within ESGP/FM and the exchange of international experiences. There are however problems – not all members of the Council are recognised by the colleges, and possibly some reports should be sent direct to the colleges. The costs of the meetings are too high. Maybe they should be shortened by one day and members could contribute to the costs of their stay. To involve more members outside the Council we can organise the meeting in relation to WONCA meetings. We probably could organise teleconferences and workshops during conferences. There should also be support for the development of university departments of GP.

Group V: The Council member should be more informed of their country situation to be a real resource person. The election procedure should take into consideration the opinion of the colleges, which pay for the costs of travel. The translation of EURACT papers into the local situation may be recommended. Maybe official letters signed by the President could be sent to the local teaching organisations and decision makers. More focus is needed on the less developed countries. EURACT should act as a kind of clearing house in the field of teaching in Europe.

The President summarised the proposals and highlighted those which were common to several groups. The summary was followed by a general discussion. There was a proposal to make it an obligation to the Council members to report to the Council on the action undertaken by the national representatives. Reports from the meetings in the full or a shorter form could be sent to the colleges or other national organisations. The essential issue is whether we are going to stay the organisation based on individual membership or we should be more related to teaching organisations. This issue will be developed further by EB and sent to Council members before the next meeting.

Session 5: Committees and task groups

The three committees: on BME, ST and CME worked separately. The reports are available in Annex 4. See also Annex 5 for Member Service Committee report.

Session 6: Core content conference arrangements

The President reminded the arrangements agreed between EURACT and European Society of General Practice/Family Medicine. The first step and the initiative belong to EURACT. In March 2002 there will be a conference organised by the Dutch College of General Practice. The final versions of the documents are going to be approved during the WONCA 2002 European Conference in London. At the present stage we have the lead role. Other bodies were only able to send a few members to take part in the process. The timetable for the next two days were presented and discussed. Leaders of small group sessions were appointed.

Session 7: Future meetings

The next Council meeting is going to be held in Maastricht, The Netherlands on April 10–14, 2002. It will start on Wednesday evening with the Council Meeting and will continue on Thursday. On Friday there will be an international conference in Utrecht on Higher Professional Training. The Council meeting will continue on Saturday morning.

The autumn meeting will be in Dublin, on September 25–29, 2002 in Trinity College. The financing is still a little bit unclear but it will be clarified during the Dutch meeting.

For 2003 the spring meeting will be in Vilnius, in the autumn England, and in spring 2004 – Sweden/Finland (shared meeting)

The Council members evaluated the preparations and the performance of the meeting very positively. At the end the President thanked Dr. Dolores Forés for all her efforts in organising the conference.

Saturday 13 October 2001

Post-Conference EB meeting

1. Next Pre-Conference EB meeting is going to be on Wednesday 10.04.2002 in Maastricht. The exact timetable to be confirmed.
2. Member Service Committee:

• information about the EURACT sponsorship for Riom and Bled courses is on the Web-site
• reports from the persons sponsored will be required – they will receive relevant letter from Dr. Egle Zebiene
• we are going to continue the sponsorship in the year 2002 on the same basis, means - 5 x 450 Bled + 5 x 150 CNGE = 3000 EUR
• the information about CNGE course needs to be on the Web-site
• Dr. Egle Zebiene and Dr. Sakis Simeonides are going to produce a concept paper about the rolling course for teachers

3. Teaching Agenda for GP/FM:
   Dr. Ivar Østergaard will coordinate further work on the document with the help of Prof. Jan Heyrman, Dr. Jan Degryse and Dr. Graham Buckley. The next draft should be ready by December 1, 2001 and then sent for comments to the Council members and further worked out in Maastricht.
4. Web-site:
   Dr. Anders Baerheim will explore the situation in Bergen University. Dr. Sakis Simeonides will review the Web-site regularly
5. Due to the late application for travel reimbursement, Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic will receive her money via a bank transfer and she will be charged for bank costs incurred.
6. Travel reimbursement for the Maastricht meeting will be done on our current basis.
7. 5000 EUR will be transferred to Prof. Harry Crebolder to support the organisation of the next Council meeting. The application to get this money from the ESGP/FM will be developed by Agnes.
8. Application for 7000 EUR reimbursement of our organisational costs will be delivered to ESGP/FM by the Honorary Treasurer
9. Dr. Justin Allen will explore the possibility of having of a EURACT booth during the London 2002 WONCA Europe Conference.
10. The travel reimbursement for the Barcelona meeting is as follows:

Summary of EURACT Council decisions – Barcelona 2001

• The report from Eger Council meeting was approved
• 21 new EURACT members from 7 different countries have been approved
• Dr. Baerheim is going to explore the possibility to support the EURACT web-site by the Web-master from the Bergen University
• EURACT is going to propose seven interactive workshops tas a contribution to the London WONCA Conference in 2002. These are going to be as follows:
  1. “How to deal with strong emotions” - Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic
  2. CME and QA - Dr. Paula Vainiomäki
  3. “The Role of GP in palliative care” - Dr. Athanasios Simeonidis
  4. “Matching teaching and learning styles” - Dr Yonah Yaphe
  5. “Teaching from the patient viewpoint” - Dr. Justin Allen
  6. ” Teaching from the doctors point of view” - Dr Dolores Forés
  7. “Assessment of hospital training” - Dr. Arthur Hibble
• A poster on the EURACT achievements, to displayed during the London WONCA 2002 Conference will be produced.
• The booklet on accreditation of teachers, produced by the Standing Committee on VT will be printed in Estonia
• The time table for the coming Council meetings is as follows:
  1. Spring meeting 2002 – Maastricht, The Netherlands – April 10–14
  2. Autumn meeting 2002 – Dublin, Ireland – September 25–29
  3. Spring meeting 2003 – Vilnius, Lithuania
  4. Autumn meeting 2003 – England
  5. Spring meeting 2004 – Sweden/Finland (shared meeting)