This is my second Newsletter to inform all of you about the ongoing activities of the UEMO.

KENSINGTON PUBLICATIONS (KPL).

You are certainly all aware that we are not at all content with the cooperation with KPL. The Reference Book and the Clinical Journal were not distributed properly last year, and the received royalty was only a fragment of the royalties received in previous years. We have tried to get a new contract during 2002, however, a renewed contract was never presented.

On 20 December 2002 I met the new publisher of KPL, Mr Tim Probart. We had a meeting where I told him about the problems with KPL, and the need for a solution. Mr Probart said KPL is very anxious to work with UEMO also in the future. They promised to solve all the economic problems towards the UEMO and its team, but until now just a very small part of the problem has been solved. We are now trying to identify an alternative publisher. See UEMO 2003/006).

CPME and AO

The Presidents will from now on meet as a "Presidents’ Steering Committee" 3-4 times a year, in order to discuss ongoing activities in the organisations and in order to identify common items which should be dealt with by one or more organisations. In consequence with that the Presidents’ Steering Committee should decide on efficient lobbying activities common to the organisations.

As experts and participants the AOs have the possibility to attend the CPME sub-committees , when dealing with specific subjects. The above mentioned activities are what we already have started in our cooperation, to as often as possible have one voice for doctors in Europe, and to avoid double work

The liaison officers will of course keep their roles and functions, but there will be no specific meeting with them.

A common office, a Domus Medica is an interesting goal expressed by every organisation. No decision has been taken in that respect, however, all the organisations will have it on the agenda. AEMH is already sharing the CPME-office and EMSA (medical students) is also connected to the office now.

Suggestions of ongoing and future cooperation between CPME and UEMO will be Prevention, GP as a medical specialty and the content of training. The PWG will also be included in the latter work. Enlargement remains an important subject and also in this area cooperation is necessary.

We now focus on to have strategies for lobbying and to influence health care in Europe, and for the time being this will be the structure for cooperation.

The mutual information between CPME and UEMO is functioning very well. As often as we can, when we have meetings in Brussels, we use the CPME office and are always welcome there. Now we use their services for "free", but in the future it feels natural to share some costs, particularly following increasing demands from our own organisation.

SECONDARY PREVENTION

The CPME invited the UEMO to participate in a meeting with Mr Rajala, DG Sanco, Head of Unit Cancer, Drug Dependance and Pollution Related diseases on 14 January 2003. See UEMO 2003/011)

The specific areas we discussed were tobacco, elderly, men´s health, diabetes, deprived areas.

The meetings will continue and we discussed to arrange a conference within the next year in collaboration with SANCO.

Mr Rajala is from Finland, and he knows UEMO´s past vice-president Klas Winell very well, and they have been discussing Tobacco related questions.

WORKING GROUPS

We had a Vice Presidents’ meeting in Brussels at the CPME office on 24 January 2003.
The working groups were discussed. We decided to have a new small Working Group on CONTENT of our specialty. This work will be presented as a draft at the Stockholm meeting.
Vice-President Mateja Bulc will chair this work, and Terry John, UK, Aldo Lupo, IT, and Justin Allen, WONCA, have all accepted to assist her. Also the PWG will be asked to participate in this work.

We do not know yet if there will be a common working group on ENLARGEMENT, but we will have one of the vice presidents responsible for this important work.

UEMO FINANCES

At our next General Assembly in Stockholm all delegates must be prepared to discuss the financial situation of our organisation and be prepared to take decisions in which way to go.
We will send out a document to all delegations within a month. This document should be considered and discussed by each UEMO delegation as a decision will have to be taken regarding how to get the budget in balance. After a year we are now able to see the problems with our budget, and it has become clear that far going decisions are required in order to solve the problem.

EFMA - WHO

This year’s meeting was held in Berlin on 6-7 February 2003. Topics such as burn-out syndrome of physicians and Telematic Medicine were discussed. Other topics discussed were: The mutual recognition of diplomas and qualifications, maintenance of quality and no-fault compensation. The Anti-tobacco Group, where UEMO participates, is chaired by Klas Winell. A resolution was adopted at the meeting. The resolution is not available at the time of writing this newsletter, but will be distributed later. A resolution on Burn-out syndrome was also adopted.

After the meeting I suggested to the chairman, Dr René Salzberg, to have general practice/ primary health care as a session at the next EFMA-WHO meeting in 2004. That proposal received a positive response.

34 countries representing the NMAs participate in the EFMA meetings. I get many questions from the non-EU countries about general practice, so I think its time to have it on the agenda. If you want documentation or more information about the EFMA meeting, I am sure you can get it from your NMAs, or just contact me.

Mr STOODLEY

On 14 February 2003 Dr Peter Mortensen and I met Mr Stoodley and his collaborators in Brussels. I have a written report from the meeting (UEMO 2003/005). The discussion concerned our Speciality, and its content and duration. I am now waiting for his possible suggestion for a new wording of recital13.

MEP JOHN BOWIS

I met Mr Bowis,(former UK Health Minister) at the Men’s health world congress 2002. He is also in the Advisory Board of the European Men´s Health Forum, just as the UEMO.
I asked him to meet Dr Brettenthaler and me at the European Parliament on 5 February 2003.
We discussed preventive activities, deprived areas and I have now invited him to attend one of the UEMO meetings.

EMHF= EUROPEAN MENS HEALTH FORUM

Our colleague Ian Banks has done a lot of work and activities to focus on men´s health. As we all know, men have 5 years shorter life expectancy than women. UEMO was invited to participate at the World congress on Mens health 2002. It was suggested that the UEMO attends the Advisory committee together with WONCA / Europe.

At our next UEMO meeting we will have more information about EMHF.