The 65th EQuiP meeting and projects conference took place between 8th-9th/11/24 in Barcelona (Spain) at Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (SEMFYC) headquarters
Dr. Jose-Miguel Bueno-Ortiz, SEMFYC working party on Patient Safety member and EQuiP Executive Board representative in WONCA Europe Executive Board, thanked SEMFYC Executive Board for its support to organise the meeting and acknowledged the myriad of messages of condolence and support regarding the devastation caused by recent flash floods in Spain in particular in Valencia Region. Now not only patient’s safety but citizen’s safety more than ever.
Prof Dr Andrée Rochfort, Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), President of EQuiP, greeted the Council members present and online, who are representatives of their national member organisations in WONCA Europe. She also conveyed messages of condolences and solidarity from the EQuiP Council and membership to GP colleagues in semFYC following the recent extreme weather events in Spain
Prof Dr Shlomo Vinker, WONCA Europe President showed its support to Spain in the aftermath of the devastation by the torrential rains, highlighted the role of WONCA Europe networks and thanked EQuiP for its contributions.
Dr Gisela Galindo-Ortega, SEMFYC vice-president, thanked EQuiP for choosing Spain to hold its meeting, highlighted the important of Quality of Care and Patient’s Safety for the front-line family doctor and pointed out the paramount contributions of SEMFYC working party on Patient Safety
Prof Maria-Pilar Astier-Peña gave the opening key-note lecture “Patient Safety Culture in Primary Care in Spain. Spanish Primary Care workers perspective comparing 2011 to 2024”. She is a full-time front-line Family Doctor working at Universitas Health Centre in Zaragoza (Spain). She chairs the Patient Safety working party of SEMFYC and SECA. She is EQUIP delegate and WONCA World Executive Board member-at-large 2021-2025. She pointed out that
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Professionals report a higher level of patient safety in healthcare facilities that have structural quality and safety factors, for example: Patient safety and quality officer; Adverse event response plan and Patient safety unit/support for second victims
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The level of patient safety increases in centers that have one or two factors and is higher if they have all three.
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Knowledge of notification systems in hospitals and primary care has increased, as well as incident reporting in the last year.
She concluded that “to invest in Quality and Safety in Primary Care improves Patient Safety Culture among professionals.”
Afterwards the EQUIP Council Meeting was held. André Rochfort, EQuiP President, reviewed and showed her satisfaction about the intense EQuiP activities at WONCA Europe Dublin 2024 https://www.qualityfamilymedicine.eu/news/view/equip-activities-at-wonca-europe-dublin-2024 as well as other activities since last WE Council meeting in Ghent. Jose-M Bueno reported about EQUIP web page and social media as well as about WE Executive Board activities. Pilar Astier and José-M Bueno reported about WONCA Working Party on Quality and Safety activities.
Elections. President Elect 2025-2028 post
The Council delegates voted in the private ballot electronic voting system and are delighted to announce that Dorien Zwart, who is Professor of General Practice/Family Medicine, GP and Head of Department of General Practice & Nursing Science, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht was elected President Elect. She is taking up her role in May 2025 during the next EQUIP Conference (LINK to Call for abstracts on EQUIP home page) https://conference.qualityfamilymedicine.eu/page/home
Professor Zwart proposes to focus on three main areas during her three-year term as EQuiP President:
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Rethinking and operationalizing GP/FM’s core values in Europe in order to add to the global core value project
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Exploring Q&S of medication, diagnostics and transitional care in Europe
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Further exploring and developing research and education on digitalization in GP/FM
We look forward to a future EQuiP Newsletter featuring an interview with Prof Zwart, President Elect.
The second lecture “SinergiAPS Project: Gathering Patient Experiences in Primary Care Regarding Their Safety" was given by Dr. Ignacio Ricci-Cabello who is a biologist, holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, and is a senior researcher at the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (IdISBa). He is also a member of the patient safety working group of semFYC.
There are very few validated tools for measuring patient safety at the health centre level based on information provided by patients. The PREOS-PC questionnaire, which is validated in Spain and available in Spanish, Catalan, and Galician, has proven to be a useful tool for evaluating patient safety, capable of detecting differences between centres and changes over time.
The SinergiAPS tool, designed to facilitate the use of PREOS-PC, is currently being used in over 100 primary care centers in Spain. Its use is helping to reveal the most frequent safety issues (according to patient perceptions and experiences), as well as evaluate and compare the levels of perceived safety among different centers, management areas, and autonomous communities.
Detailed information about SinergiAPS and PREOS-PC is available at https://grappcaib.es/sinergiaps/
The third lecture was a webinar “Federated Research: Opportunities for Health System Comparison” by Mr. Francisco Estupiñán-Romero. Institute for Health Sciences in Aragón (IACS) and Mr Enrique Bernal Delgado. Aragones Institute of Health Sciences (IACS). Developing a Learning Health System requires the secondary use of health data for research. Researchers can use a federated analytical approach to access and analyse vast amounts of health data while maintaining patient privacy and data security. This method allows for collaborative studies across multiple institutions without centralizing sensitive information, thus enhancing the robustness and diversity of research findings. Embracing this innovative approach can lead to ground-breaking discoveries, improved patient outcomes, and a deeper understanding of complex health issues.
Saturday was partly devoted to discuss the 66th EQUIP Conference that will be held in 8th-10th May 2025 in Linz (Austria). Its theme is “The Impact of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence in Family Medicine” and its chair of the Organization Committee is Prof. Dr. Erika Zelko. Institut für Allgemeinmedizin. Johannes Kepler Universität Linz (Austria). https://conference.qualityfamilymedicine.eu/page/home
It was followed by the presentation of projects:
The first one was “Making patient reported experience useful and used in practice” by Mr. Joel Lehmann. Externe Qualitätsförderung in der ambulanten Medizin (EQUAM). Stiftung Bern (Swiss). Joel summarised initiatives being utilised in Switzerland and internationally to gather data and analyse patient experiences in primary care
It was followed by “Joint forces against opioids. Is it possible?” by Dr. Nicolas Øyane. The Norwegian College of General Practice (NFA). Nicolas explored the variations in prescribing opioids through the lens of quality improvement.
Finally, Dr Adrian Rohrbasser , University of Bern, delivered the closing keynote lecture: “Developing shared decision-making tools for primary care physicians in Switzerland: choosing antibiotic prescriptions recommended by guidelines”
For more information https://www.qualityfamilymedicine.eu/