WONCA Europe

WONCA Europe's aim is to improve the quality of life of people living in Europe through fostering high standards of care in Family Medicine. WONCA Europe fosters the advocacy of the values of Family Medicine in Europe: person-centered care, continuity of care, equity of care, community oriented care, science oriented care, professionalism in care (professional development, education and training) and coordination in care ( GPs collaborate across professions to provide coordinated care).

WONCA Europe promotes professional development and research in and on general practice to all the GPs in the continent.

WONCA Europe and the EU institutions have a common shared values to improve the quality of healthcare but also to improve the access to healthcare to the whole EU population. Primary health care (PHC) is a key stakeholder to address the population´s needs regarding the urgent health priorities in the EU (EU4Health Programme): 1) COVID-19. PHC was involved in nearly all steps of detection and management of COVID-19 cases in the EU. There is a need to provide all the medical examinations (phlebotomy, chest x-ray) and treatments available to COVID-19 patients in the community. 2) Cancer. PHC is the main setting where cancer is diagnosed and most importantly screened and early diagnosed. Investing in preventive care services in PHC is essential to detect and avoid the modifiable factors that favours cancer development. 90% of European citizens visit a GP every 3 years so we are in a privileged position to provide these services.
The values of WONCA Europe are aligned with the other EU goals: Disease prevention & health promotion is a basic task of our medical specialty. We are the first line doctors to receive refugees and migrants’ patients so we are in a privileged position to analyze and promote international health initiatives. WONCA Europe has experience in working with national Health Ministries trough their national members to strengthen health systems and resource efficiency. Also, PHC works very cost-effectively, so that budgets are particularly profitable. Our experience can be very valuable in: 1) Working to improve access to healthcare to the whole populations especially vulnerable population.2) Advancing in health data, digital tools, digital transformation of healthcare. 3)Our WONCA Europe special groups work can share their knowledge with the EU to implement health legislation and evidence-based decision making. 4)As we are a European organization, we have national organization in all the EU countries so we are in a privileged position to integrate work among national health systems. Bringing together knowledge on approaches and organization in order to improve care in the different states of Europe could be a major saving in efforts and resources, where now each country is making these efforts on its own.
Our proposals to cooperate with the EU institutions are: 1) Promoting EU legislation that protects PHC and their values (first medical contact, longitudinally, comprehensiveness and coordination) to achieve better health levels on the EU population including early cancer detection. 2)Investing in open PHC information systems to strengthen health systems. 3) Incorporating practicing GPs to the decision-making bodies in the EU institutions to design health strategies on a PHC level.4) The needed resources to provide a good quality of care in all the EU through GPs. The WHO calls on all countries to invest an additional 1% of the gross domestic product in primary care after the pandemic, however that recommendation has not been shared by the EU.
The EU can certainly play a role in promoting a good quality care for European citizens through GPs and this exchange of knowledge and cooperation between WONCA Europe and EU could be beneficial for the population.

https://www.woncaeurope.org

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We are an organization run by the voluntary work of all their members with the exception of the secretary who is hired full time

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