Noticias semFYC - La revista digital de semFYC

Vasco da Gama movement (VdGM):
We are the Wonca Europe working group for young and future General Practitioners!!!

Sara del Olmo
Fernández

VdGM is currently organizing another Wonca Europe Pre-conference on the 15^th and 16^th of September 2009, which will be held in Basel, Switzerland. The Pre-conference will host young doctor delegates from every European member country and VdGM is also organsing their own participation in the Wonca Europe Conference: we collaborate with different workshops and VdGM theme group meetings and activities.

During the Pre-conference the VdGM Europe Council and the VdGM Executive Group hold their annual meetings. Spain will be represented in both meetings with my attendance. In addition, we will participate at the Pre-conference with 2 enthusiastic representatives, Beatriz García Mozún y Eduardo Junco, who, for the first time, will enjoy this international opportunity in recognition of their previous hard work in Spain regarding activities for young doctors.

Vasco da Gama Movement was given its name in Lisbon, on January 2005, one year after its birth in Amsterdam 2004, and it was in Lisbon that its main aims were decided. Lisbon is where our real international journey began, and one year ago we took another huge step forward, with an Informal meeting held, once again, in Lisbon. This attractive and inspiring project of VdGM has been growing (and fast) since then. These initial years of early development offered new opportunities to this young group, as several informal and formal meetings were held; in Lisbon (June 2008) followed by Istanbul (September 2008) and they have been the main scenarios for our VdGM development over the last year. Meetings, in addition to the virtual mailing work that forms part of our everyday lives, contribute to our strength and experience.

The Portuguese Association of General Practitioners (APMCG) kindly hosted the VdGM Europe Council Informal Meeting in Lisbon 2008, and all the Europe Council members of VdGM were invited to attend the event. The meeting took place in the APMCG head office on June 2008 from the 13th to the 15th.

I was very fortunate to be there, and for the first time I attended as a Europe Council member of VdGM. For the first time in my life I felt I was doing something important, something relevant and good for my country equals, on behalf of every family doctor in Spain, and not only would my work be important to Spanish doctors but also later it would involve many European members as well. This I would not find out until Istanbul 2008, where I was nominated as a member of the Executive Group and the Liaison person for the Exchange group of VdGM. My election was very much influenced by the fact that Spain will host the WONCA congress in Málaga, on October 2010, and as a result I became responsible for the unavoidable: Pre-conference manager for 2010. That is what my aim in VdGM now is. That is why I am working this hard. To organize the Pre-conference and the WONCA congress 2010 along with my Spanish colleagues in order to share with Europe and its GP doctors one of the biggest medical events ever held in Spain, hosted by our scientific Society, semFYC.

During the Europe Council Meeting in Paris the idea of organizing an extra meeting came up, to be held in addition to the regular Europe Council meetings that take place once a year during the WONCA Europe conference. After the great success of the meeting in Lisbon, which the Portuguese Association kindly organised for us, VdGM has unanimously decided that this is the way we must continue working, and our wish for the Europe Council is that these two meetings per year should take place and in this way the movement will be able to keep developing at its own speed without restrictions.

This year the informal meeting will be probably hosted by our neighbours once again, yet to be confirmed, in Nice (France), on June 2009, thanks to the French association of young researchers (FAYR GP) who will make this meeting possible. On this occasion we will work on the final details for the Pre-conference in Basel 2009, but we will also have to start planning seriously now for the following one, Málaga 2010.

Every year VdGM asks all the National European Colleges and societies to send 1-2 delegates to the Pre-conference. Every year one or two "new" delegates have the opportunity to get an interesting introduction to the idea of being a GP in a European context and can exchange ideas, experiences and visions. Discussions with fellow-trainees or young GPs from all over Europe will widen perspectives and horizons, in keeping with the mission statement of VdGM:

Pre-conference participants thus have the chance to get to know the activities of VdGM by attending the Pre-conference and then the yearly WONCA Europe conference.

The main objective of these activities is to develop and keep the young GPs' enthusiasm to aim for a high quality Family Medicine in Europe and extrapolate it to their countries, working under the motto: "think globally, act locally".

During the conference in Basel, as VdGM does every year in the main conference, we will have Open lectures for every GP interested:

• Highlights of Pre-conference: Conclusions of the groups’ work done during the pre-conference will be presented and discussed.
• VdGM General Meeting: VdGM and especially the VdGM Theme Groups inform about ongoing activities and future plans to discuss, lecture generally attended by a wide audience of junior doctors.

Apart from these lectures, some workshops of VdGM or with VdGM participation will take place, such as The Hippokrates program workshop, organized by the Exchange group of VdGM.

As I am responsible not only for this workshop but I have also taken care of the development of the Hippokrates programme since I met Per Kallestrup, the founder, in Paris 2007, so I highly encourage every Spanish doctor to check out the website and join this activity.

www.euract.org/page02c.html (English)

www.semfyc.es/es/organizacion/
grupos_wonca_europa/PROGRAMA+HIPOCRATES/ (Spanish)

As a last note I would like to congratulate our Swiss friends for the great work that they are doing for the conference in Basel. I want us Spanish doctors to follow their example in many matters, but I would like to highlight one of them: They have developed a low expense alternative for young doctors, the “Take a GP” programme, which will enable young doctors to have free or very cheap accommodation during the conference in September 2009. We are planning to do the same in Malaga so we can have the greatest number of young doctors visiting our city and our congress. So please, if you live in Malaga, think about it!!! And, come to the Conference in 2010, of course!!!

GP Trainee in Madrid 2005-2009, Spain.
Vicepresident of Trainees in Madrid 2008-2009, SoMaMFyC.
http://vocaliamadrid.wordpress.com
International representative for trainees and young doctors for semFyC.
www.semfyc.es/es/informativo/vocalia_semfyc/
Member of the Europe Council and Executive Group for "Vasco da Gama Movement", WONCA Europe.
www.vdgm.eu
Liaison person for the Exchange group in Vasco da Gama Movement.
www.vdgm.eu
Madrid and Spain coordinator for the Hippokrates program.
www.euract.org/hipp04.html