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Council meeting - Lillafüred, Hungary, April 2005 Report of the Meeting

Council Reports Contents

Wednesday 20 April 2005

Pre-Council Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board met before the Council Meeting and discussed the following issues:

• A common format for reports on fees collected by National Representatives is needed. The Council will consider this problem when the financial report is discussed.
• New Council Members will introduce themselves to small groups only. The Council will be divided into 3 groups and each of the groups will interview each new member. Then 5 bullet points about each person will be presented to the whole Council.
• Job Metsemakers will present the concept of the new group on educational research. A general discussion will follow.
• The Definition revision was completed by Justin Allen and will be presented to the Council.
• The “5 minutes 1 slide” will include max. 6 presentations and each Council Member will be allowed to give only 1 presentation. Deadline for application – lunchtime Thursday.
• The feedback session must be organized carefully, giving the opportunity to everybody to take part.
• The decisions about EURACT involvement in the program of Kos WONCA Europe Conference have to be taken before the end of Council meeting. This will be discussed with the President of WONCA Europe, who will attend the Council meeting as an observer.
• Leaders for the Vasco da Gama meeting, which will take place before the WONCA Europe Congress in Kos, have to be appointed. The open invitation will be addressed to the whole Council.
• The new President will take office at the last session of the ongoing Council meeting.
• The General Meeting should appoint new auditors. Potential candidates are Philip Evans and Harry Crebolder.
• A new correspondent for EJGP is needed.

Session 1: Country reports

The President welcomed the Council Members and especially the President of WONCA Europe – Professor Igor Svab, who joined the meeting for the first time as an observer. There were 3 new Council members: from Malta, UK and Serbia. The whole Council was divided randomly into three parts to interview each of the new colleagues. The President also described the agenda of the ongoing meeting. The plan was approved. After the small group discussions the representatives of each group reported back to the Council about the new members.

Roger Price is working as a Postgraduate Dean in Leicester. He is responsible for organization of postgraduate teaching. He is married and has two children. He has been elected as a new UK EURACT representative.

Mario R. Sammut is a GP in Malta. He works for government and in private practice. He has 20 years of experience as GP. He has been working for 4 years as an academic teacher of general practice for undergraduate students. He wants to develop vocational training. He is married and has three children. He is a new Malta representative.

Smiljka Radic works as a GP in Belgrade. She is a state employee. She is involved also in a vocational training scheme at the university, where she serves voluntarily as a mentor for trainees. She is working on her PhD thesis in the field of doctor-patient communication and hopefully she is going to defend it soon. She is married and has two children. She is the first representative of Serbia and Montenegro to EURACT.

Then reports on the key activities were given to the Council.

• Prof. Jan Heyrman informed us that the new version of educational agenda was developed. All the comments sent until now are included in it. The final version should be ready for Kos Conference. Comments are still welcome and should be sent to Prof. Heyrman not later than June 1, 2005. Chapters 7 and 8 still need a lot of work to be finished. This is planned for the group sessions on Friday afternoon.
• Prof. Job Metsemakers reported the progress of the work in the field of educational research. Many Council Members expressed their interest in the subject. The discussion paper was developed by Prof. Metsemakers to start discussion with the Council.
• Dr. Justin Allen reported on the progress of the work on development of a shorter version of New Definition, which will be offered to WONCA Europe for approval. The final document should be also ready for Kos Conference.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene reported on preparation for the next edition of the Leonardo EURACT course. Negotiations are still going on about participation of some teams, especially from Cyprus, Czech Republic and Albania. Teams from Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina have met all the criteria and are already approved.

Thursday 21 April 2005

Session 2: Executive Task Force presentation

• At the beginning amendments to the program were announced by the President and by Dr. Janos Szabo. A new Council Member then arrived – Dr. Jaroslava Lankova for Czech Republic – and introduced herself. She is a GP working at the Department of Family Medicine of the Charles University in Prague.
• Prof. Job Metsemakers gave the report from the work of the Task Force set-up to develop the rules for internal relationship within the Council. The group developed proposals for the changes in the constitution and the draft of less formal document called EURACT guidelines. The main constitution changes relate to the following issues:
• Membership – application can be submitted only through the national representative. The fee should be paid after approval of the Council
• Council has the possibility of establishing committees or task forces which could be chaired by one person for not longer than six years
• Co-option is only possible for a specific EURACT task. Co-option is for a maximum of 3 years with a maximum 3 co-opted members and no voting rights for co-opted member
• The Executive board membership will consist of the President, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer and 3 other Council Members. Election is by simple majority with only one renewal for three years possible. There will be a maximum of 12 years for EB membership. Committee chairs are not the part of EB but can be invited to attend meetings.
• Quorum – A minimum 20 members must be present to hold a council meeting.
• The General meeting must be held once every two years.
• The following Guidelines were proposed:
  • Transparency as a rule
  • Councillors have access to all the information but they are not expected to take a decision unless they are consulted on the matter.
• Specific issues are:
  • I. Information – clear time limits
  • II. Consultation – enough time for discussion and chance to speak for everybody
  • III. Communication at the Council – certain rules of communication
  • IV. Obligations of the councillors – no major changes in the existing version.
• Questions for clarification were asked by several Council Members. Prof. Job Metsemakers clarified the doubts giving the view of the task force.

Session 3: Committee work

The Council was working in small groups. The committees on BME, VT, CPD and Member Service were working separately.

Session 4: Discussion of Executive Task Force recommendation

The proposals for changes to the constitution and the EURACT guidelines were discussed and these proposals, which did not achieve consensus, were put forward to the business meeting for voting. EURACT guidelines were commented on generally. The new version will be proposed at the next meeting in Vienna. Written comments still can be sent to Prof. Job Metsemakers who will develop new proposals.

Session 5: Business meeting

• The Council approved the report from the Århus meeting.
• The copy of Leonardo-EURACT course materials will be distributed to all Council Members. EURACT will meet the mailing costs.
• In seven countries second respondents did not respond to the questionnaire about current situation in teaching of general practice in Europe. So, Agnes Goethuys will ask for third person to be proposed by the Council Members. In case of conflicting answers the Council Members will be asked to clarify this. Dr. Roar Maagaard commented that at least interim report is needed immediately even with some possible mistakes.
• The President informed the Council that he represented the Council for the last time during the WONCA Council meeting in Orlando, USA. This is the last Council meeting chaired by Dr. Justin Allen who is stepping down from the Presidential Office. He expressed his good feelings about the years of his presidency.
• Dr Athanasios Simeonidis presented his report as the Honorary Treasurer. 25633 euro – this is the amount which EURACT spent to run the organization and its activities. Income is 34947 euro. The current balance is 35432 euro. Dr. Simeonidis is also stepping down from the post of Hon. Treasurer. It was agreed that in the future the reports would be distributed before the Council meeting.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene informed us about the WONCA Europe EB meeting, which took place in Ljubljana, where she represented EURACT. She informed the Council that the idea of more close collaboration between the three networks was discussed. The document of Educational Agenda was well received by the EB. Also the idea of short version of New Definition was welcomed. The European EB thinks that most probably it is also time for revision. So there is a chance that it will be accepted as a new edition. WONCA Europe is happy with EURACT involvement in the Junior Doctor Project and expects us to continue it.
• Prof. Igor Svab informed the Council about the current structure and working plans of the new EB of WONCA Europe. He stressed the importance of EURACT as an important and active organization in collaboration with WONCA Europe. They especially appreciate the quality of the position documents developed by EURACT.
• The amendments to the constitution were pointed out. Prof. Job Metsemakers is responsible to introduce them. The voted solutions were:
• two-step procedure (first application, then fee)
• nomination of the chair by the committee and approval by the Council
• maximum 12 years in EB
• There were also new issues raised by several Council Members. Finally the following amendments have been recommended:
  • special membership should be offered also to young doctors,
  • to introduce the limit of three members in the country to allow to elect the Council Member,
  • in the case of resignation the newly elected Council Member completes only the remaining time of the 3 years term,
  • direct members of WONCA are eligible to pay half of the membership fee.
• Dr. Filipe Gomes (Dr. Fergus O'Kelly – reserve), Dr Athanasios Simeonidis, Dr. Roar Maagaard, Dr. Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic, Dr. Justin Allen (Dr. Monica Lindh – reserve), Prof. Job Metsemakers, Dr. Jaroslava Lankova, Dr. Roger Price are prepared to serve as group leaders for Junior Doctor Project to work before the WONCA Europe Conference.
• The keynote speakers for the conference who were appointed previously are expected to work in collaboration with the representatives of two other networks. There are still considerable difficulties to agree the final structure of the plenary sessions.
• New members from the following countries were approved: Austria – 4, Belgium – 2, Bosnia & Herzegovina – 6, Germany – 1, Greece – 4, Italy – 10, Portugal – 1, Romania – 4, Turkey – 4, UK – 2.

Session 6: “5 minutes 1 slide” presentations

• Prof. Job Metsemakers – Dutch Council Member – produced the document on European Primary Health Care (PHC). It is available on the web-site www.healthcouncil.nl. It can help to develop further PHC in different countries and give a lot of outputs. There is a new initiative to create European Forum to gather politicians and other decision makers to put forward the development of PHC.
• Dr. Francesco Carelli introduced the product of University of Milan – training between BME and VT (in Italian). He also stressed the need to develop further the idea of Educational Research.
• Dr. Dolores Fores wants to explore further consequences of part-time work of doctors. What does it mean for further development of general practice and teaching. A second issue is that many doctors are moving across the borders. Some less developed countries are losing the best people.
• Dr. Janko Kersnik made promotion of the conference (Assessment in GP), 23-24 September 2005. The conference, under patronage of EURACT, will be held in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It is possible to submit abstracts (deadline – 20 June). There are also 5 sponsored places + 5 sponsored for the course.

Friday 22 April 2005

Session 7: Task Force groups

The Council split into 4 groups working separately on the following issues:

• Educational Agenda
• SCOT analysis
• Educational Research strategy
• Short version of New Definition

Saturday 23 April 2005

Session 8: Future plans

• Dr. Monica Lindh is going to take part in the Conference & 25 Years Jubilee of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, held on 5-7^th August 2005 in South Africa. The Council asked Dr. Lindh to pass EURACT's best wishes and greetings of further development.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene presented her plans as the new President of the Academy. She wants to continue the current working style of the Academy focused on delivery of products available to teachers in Europe. She also wants to create better and closer contacts with other networks. She thinks that we should also collaborate better with Vasco da Gama movement of young doctors. She will be happy to preserve the friendly atmosphere in the Council and wish for collaboration. The challenge for the future would be to increase the volume of work between the Council meetings.
• Dr. Justin Allen summarized our doubts concerning the content and structure of the plenary sessions in the WONCA Europe conference in Kos. We still do not have the details about keynote speakers from other networks. Their role is a little bit unclear. The way of use of the voting system is also unclear. Who is going to coordinate preparations? Dr. Simeonidis answered some of these questions but still a measure of uncertainty exists. Letters explaining our position will be sent by the President to the host organizing committee and two other networks. There will be also a certain number of EURACT workshops presented during the WONCA Europe Conference in Kos. BME, VT, CPD and Member Service Committees submitted the abstracts. There is also an abstract on Educational Agenda. During this Conference EURACT General Meeting will be organized preferably on Monday, during the lunch break. Reports of President and Hon. Treasurer will be presented. A proposal of changes in the constitution will be discussed and approved. EURACT is also prepared to contribute to Vasco da Gama Movement. We have a long list of volunteers. The Host Organizing Committee has to decide how many persons from EURACT they really need. Dr. Justin Allen is the liaison officer for this project.
• Plans for future meeting of the Council in Vienna were discussed. The meeting will be held on November 2-6, 2005. The meeting will start on 5.30 p.m. and before a regular EB meeting will take place. On the last day (Saturday) the symposium on Medical Education in Mental Health Care will take place. Speakers from EURACT and Austrian College will have presentations during the symposium. Several Council Members stressed that the symposium program should not be filled with too many presentations. There should be enough time for questions and other interactive activities. Dr. Justin Allen is the liaison officer for this meeting.
• The Spring 2006 meeting will take place in Turku, Finland on 3-7 May, 2006. This meeting will be also connected to the local event organized jointly with the Finnish College. Dr. Adam Windak is the liaison officer for this meeting.
• Autumn 2006 meeting probably will take place in Prague, Czech Republic.
• Spring 2007 – plans for Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Session 9: Reports

• Prof. Job Metsemakers presented the results of the discussion of the group working on Educational Research Strategy. This group worked on the document developed by Prof. Job Metsemakers. The discussion focussed on 5 topics:
• Stimulation of teaching of research
• Promotion of educational research
• Organization of courses on methodology
• Conduction of multi-national research
• Presentation of the results of educational research
• The group has made rather precise plans for further work on the topic. The whole report is available in Annex 5.
• Dr. Francesco Carelli reported the content of discussion of BME. They discussed the Kos workshop, BME organizers checklist and the issue of early clinical exposure. The workshop in Kos will be on multicultural differences in teaching.
• Dr. Roar Maagaard presented the results of VT committee discussion. They will be also presented during the Kos Conference. They will focus on differences in recruitment procedures for VT in Europe. There was also a discussion on the length of VT in Europe. The group strongly needs the Excel file produced by Prof. Jan Heyrman. Potential contacts and links to Vasco da Gama Movement were also discussed. Another issue was the updating of the document on trainers selection. Potential survey on financial arrangements for the training in Europe was also discussed. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Prof. Paula Vainiomäki reported on CPD committee work. The group is becoming larger. They discussed the idea of the “toolbox” for GPs who want to continue their academic development. Probably the document will be produced in two versions: “short” for general audience and “large” in academic version. The arrangements for further work were done. Prof. Jan Heyrman will coordinate the workshop in Kos. There are also plans for further collaboration with EQuiP. The small group of 3 persons will contact EQuiP to discuss possibilities for further collaboration. The need for review of the landscape document was also discussed. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Dr. Egle Zebiene reported on the discussion of the Member Service committee. The committee wants to appoint new chairman and wants to propose Dr. Filipe Gomes to overtake this duty. The Council approved this decision. The group discussed the preparations for the Leonardo-EURACT course in Kusadasi. Financial input from EURACT will be 6000 euro as it was agreed earlier. The local organizer is going to find the remaining sum to cover the expenses. Eight countries were approved to the course and there are 2 paying members. Altogether there should be 34 participants. Next Leonardo-EURACT course will take place in Portugal. This will be a course for Spain, Italy, Malta, Ireland and Portugal. If there is further interest in such courses in other regions it will probably be possible to organize them. Sponsoring for the Bled courses will stay as it was agreed earlier (5 x 500 euro for the course + 5 x 100 euro for the conference in Kranjska Gora). The idea of assessment course was also discussed.. Prof. Jan Heyrman declared that Dr. Jan Degreese is ready to develop this kind of course. The full report is available in Annex 4.
• Dr. Justin Allen reported on the progress of the group, which worked on the shorter version of New Definition. The document is nearly ready and will be presented to WONCA Europe conference in Kos. The draft will be circulated to the Council Members with the request for comments. The current version is available as Annex 6 .
• Prof. Jan Heyrman reported on the work on the document on Educational Agenda. New version was designed. The draft will be distributed in May. Comments are welcomed till the end of June. Certain concerns about the structure of the document have been expressed. Authors and the editor are aware of limitations, however its value is undisputable.
• Dr. Roger Price reported on the discussion on SCOT analysis. The group reviewed the items. They feel the need for general brainstorming on the subject during the next Council meeting. They stress the need for circulation of the draft documents for comments as early as possible. Another issue would be a further development of international conference of teachers.
• At the end of the session Dr. Justin Allen summarized the meeting experiences. He asked all the Council Members to reflect on it. Most of them stated enormous change in the working style and atmosphere, which went in very positive direction. Finally Dr. Egle Zebiene thanked Dr. Janos Sabo for all his efforts to organize the Council meeting. On behalf of the Council she expressed grateful feelings for marvellous arrangements offered by the organizers. At this point the meeting was officially concluded.

Post-Council Executive Board meeting

• Dr. Justin Allen is a co-opted Council member for one additional year. He is expected to attend next two meetings and to assist the EB in its work.
• EB meeting before the Council meeting in Vienna will start on Wednesday, 2^nd November at 15.00. Wolfgang will confirm the place.
• Due to a significant number of Council members unsatisfied with current procedure, country reports are coming back to the previous version. Written forms will be distributed at the meeting and attached to the report. There will be no posters.
• Introduction to the task force work should be limited only to a 5 minutes -1 slide presentation.
• New ideas on proposals for task forces should be proposed during the regular 5 minutes 1 slide session.
• The invitation to the General Meeting will be put on the web-site. The Agenda and proposal for the changes in the bylaws will be also on the web-site. Prof. Job Metsemakers and Dr. Justin Allen will develop the final version to be proposed to the General Meeting.
• Prof. J. Metsemakers will re-draft the EURACT Guidelines and the new version will be considered during the next meeting.
• Adam Windak will develop presentation leaflets about the Leonardo EURACT course in Portugal. The course will take place on May 17-21, 2006. Leaflets will be available on EURACT booth in Kos.
• Teaching materials for the Leonardo EURACT course will be mailed to all Council Members together with the report from the Council meeting. EURACT will pay for the mailing costs.
• Agnes Goethuys will organize new election of Cypriot representative. Only 5 fully approved members will participate in it.
• Dr Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic will be a EURACT reporter for EJGP responsible for regular writing (4 times a year) news from EURACT.
• Dr Jaroslava Lankova will be reimbursed on the level of 20 cents/1 km for the travel to the meeting. This is equivalent to the reimbursement used by WONCA Europe and can be used in future for reimbursement of car travels if needed.
• The cost of the web-site is very high. Current arrangements perhaps should be re-negotiated or/and other potential solutions should be explored.
• Reimbursement of the travel expenses:

  1. Samira	400X90% = 360
  2. Margus	294X90% = 265
  3. Okay	410X90% = 370
  4. Adam	480X90% = 430
  5. Smiljka	042X90% = 40
  6. Llukan	280X90% = 250
  7. Ruta	300X90% = 270
  Total output	1985 euro

Summary of EURACT Council and EB decisions – Lillafüred 2005

• The Leonardo-EURACT course materials will be sent to all Council members.
• Changes to the EURACT Constitution are recommended by the Council and will be presented to the General Meeting.
• Group leaders for Junior Doctor Project to work before the WONCA Europe Conference have been appointed by the Council.
• 38 new EURACT members from 10 different countries have been approved by the Council.
• The President will send the letters about the problems with Kos Conference to the host organizing committee and two other networks.
• Five EURACT workshops will be presented during the WONCA Europe Conference in Kos.
• The autumn 2005 Council meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria on November 2-6, 2005.
• The spring 2006 Council meeting will take place in Turku, Finland on 3-7 May, 2006.
• The country reports are coming back to the old written format distributed during the first session of each Council meeting.
• The 2006 Leonardo EURACT course will take place in Portugal on May 17-21, 2006.
• Dr Mladenka Vrcic-Keglevic is responsible for regularly writing news from EURACT to EJGP.
• Any car travel costs for EURACT will be reimbursed on the level of 20 cents/1 km.