Published on 11 January 2021.

WHO Europe & WONCA Europe Collaboration during the Pandemic

WONCA Europe contributed to the WHO Learning Hub on COVID-19 Health Services in many ways as a non-state actor (NSA). Some of them as below presenting the WONCA Europe perspective.

Those already produced webinars are a great example of our active community across Europe and the globe. You can find the links to selected materials produced by WONCA Europe for/with the WHO-Europe.

Webinar (04 June 2020): Family Doctors & WHO & Pandemic: the way forward
Organizers: Professor Dr Mehmet Ungan , President of WONCA Europe & Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Director of the Division for Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO Regional Office for EUROPE. Challenges facing Family Doctors in Fighting COVID-19: Experiences from the Field, Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Frese , WONCA Europe Speaker – Options for a better PHC Response to Pandemic and other crises: Primary Health Care roles and capacities: Options for System transformation - Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Director of the Division for Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO Regional Office for EURO
https://www.woncaeurope.org/m/events/view/family-doctors-and-who-and-pandemic-the-way-forward
Webinar (09 Jul 2020): ARPHA COVID-19 Webinar: Primary Care service during and post Covid-19 Speakers: Professor Mehmet Ungan , President, WONCA Europe & Dr Hassan Salah, Regional Advisor on Primary Care , WHO EMRO, with discussions
https://www.woncaeurope.org/video/arpha-covid-19-webinar-primary-care-service-during-and-post-covid-19
WONCA Europe Statement (11 Sep 2020); for 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. Created by EURIPA and WONCA Europe, Presented by Prof. Mehmet Ungan in the meeting and by a video record by Dr Ferdinando Petrozuoli
https://www.woncaeurope.org/video/wonca-europe-statement-for-70th-session-of-the-who-regional-committee-for-europe
WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office) and WONCA – Europe created a short online questionnaire about brief interventions for risk factors of noncommunicable diseases in primary healthcare (PHC). The survey takes approximately 15 minutes and can be conducted even if briefinterventions are not used in daily practice. Professor Mehmet Ungan has arranged and tested it in 12 GP/FD practices across Europe and asked got feedback for amendments which were kindly and fully made by the office. So far: we got responses from Serbia, Spain, Romania, France, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, UK, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. The responses are very interesting, and also a considerable number of GPs/FDs are happy to participate in the interview. Hoping to collect up to 300 responses to the online survey. https://forms.gle/mBdmbfVtCuic58Zy6 We expect submissions until December 30, 2020.
"Manual" on Brief Interventions for Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors in Primary Healthcare
Brief interventions are an effective tool to address the main NCD risk factors - smoking, alcohol, unhealthy nutrition, and physical inactivity but still low. To tackle this challenge, the NCD Office and WONCA – Europe representative Professor Mehmet Ungan currently working on a Manual on Brief Interventions for Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors in Primary Health Care , that should support countries to implement, establish and promote brief interventions in their PHC setting.
Commemoration of the Astana Declaration (11 Now 2020): Video declarations and a statement by Prof Ungan on behalf of WONCA Europe in commemoration of the Astana Declaration together with Hans Kluge, Helena Pepa, Melitta Jakab, Alexy Tsoy, Noel Richardson
https://twitter.com/i/status/1324639492192538625
https://twitter.com/WHO_Europe/status/1323266864382967809
https://www.woncaeurope.org/video/video-statement-by-prof-ungan-in-commemoration-of-the-astana-declaration
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdZ3wQMEo4pMYejiPT48jg
WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care in Almaty, Kazakhstan, made a video series that they were organizing to commemorate the Declarations of Alma-Ata and Astana. Being the WHO Regional Office of Europe’s flagship for promoting primary health care in the European Region, they kindly took upon themselves to organize a commemorative event for these two seminal declarations each year.
WHO Europe “Advisory Group on Noncommunicable Diseases” (10 Nov 2020): As the President of WONCA Europe, taking the gender balance in to consideration, with the approval of the Executive Board, I have nominated Prof. Eva Hummers to representWONCA Europe in the WHO Regional Office for Europe in the newly established “Advisory Group on Noncommunicable Diseases”. The appointment is for 3 years. Eva Has attended in to the first meeting and found that very valuable
WHO Europe Regional Director, Dr Hans Kluge, was with us in the WONCA Europe Conference, virtual from Berlin, 16 December 2020 during the Opening Plenary Session.
Dr Kluge the regional director made a keynote lecture in the Conference recently, titled as “ FMs position in healthcare system, WHO-aspects for primary care”. Always supportive to GP/FM, the WHO Europe Regional Director Doctor Dr Hans Kluge delivered an amazingly effective speech taking all what we are currently going through into account. At the end I asked dear Dr Kluge to give us a task. What would he recommend us to concentrate on for the next 12 months as the 3 achievable goals? He answered:
1. Positive partnership in between WHO Europe & WONCA Europe and all others
2. Going to challenging places together in the WHO Europe region to help
3. Linking GPs/FDs with Hospitals

I am happy to mention that those above are all in our revised future plan 2019-2022, linked here to the original plan in the WONCA Europe website.