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6TH WONCA

By John Gillies
Contact the author by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

6Th WONCA World Rural Health Congress-- Rural Health in a Changing World 24th-27th September 2003, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

This was the first WONCA Rural Health Congress held in Europe. Organised by SemFYC (The Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine) and EURIPA (European Remote and Rural Practitioners' Association), it offered a great breadth of scientific material, passionate debate about some of the most important medical issues that face us today, and some music and culture as well. Santiago is a major pilgrimage centre for the Christian world, and has a wonderful cathedral, as well as the best seafood in the world (according to our Spanish hosts, corroborated by me).

Nearly seven hundred delegates from the Antipodes, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America contributed. We had music in the Plaza from Scotland, Wales, Galicia and Canada. (see pictures). We found out that the Galician bagpipe, like the Scottish, does not need amplification. Spanish hospitality is prodigious, and the conference lunches were impressive in quality. This conference was the first bilingual WONCA rural congress, with simultaneous translation from Spanish to English or vice versa for some plenaries and sessions. This must be the way ahead for our diverse world, if we are not to become unappealingly monoglot.

Highlights for me were Julian Tudor Hart's idiosyncratic but powerful keynote on integrating public health and family practice and Richard Smith's take on medicalisation. Elisabeth Swensen from Norway chaired a powerful workshop on describing and defining rural medicine, which deserves more exposure in Scotland. It's an antidote to the sad reductionism of our new GMS contract. The workshop on HIV/AIDS in rural Africa, organised by Ian Couper, offered a sobering but realistic perspective on this difficult topic, the gist of which was that HIV is not just a medical problem but is greatly exacerbated by poverty and global injustice. The International Journal of Remote and Rural Health, based in Australia, is developing a European section, under the editorship of Prof. Christos Lionis of Greece, where we hope some of the congress material will be published.

See http://rrh.deakin.edu.au/home/defaultnew.asp for details. The programme can still be seen on www.ruralwonca2003.net , and details of the conference statements and declaration at the WONCA site, www.GlobalFamilyDoctor.com .

Scots made notable contributions. Anne MacLeod, novelist, poet and dermatologist in Inverness led a poetry workshop, described by one African delegate as the best thing at the congress. Iain Bamforth, doctor, poet and polymath, gave a lecture on Miguel Torga, and led a workshop on a cultural history of walking, chosen because of the theme of pilgrimage. RARARI sponsored research was much in evidence, with contributions from Highlands, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders. Ruth Dorward and Iain Fraser from Jedburgh, Alastair Brown and Winnie MacNicol sang and played for us. Rosie Donovan's "Single Handed" photographic exhibition was widely praised. (It's now at RCGP Scotland headquarters at Queen Street, Edinburgh) Congratulations are due to John MacLeod of North Uist on his "Rural WONCA Lifetime Award". John was on the WONCA Rural Working Party for many years, and has made a unique contribution. He is succeeded by Jim Douglas (RARARI Medical Director)from Fort William.

A wonderful if exhausting experience. Michael Boland, rural GP and President of WONCA, stayed and enjoyed right to the end. His rendering of "The Rose of Skibereen" is now accepted as a classic. A big round of applause for Juan Mendive of SemFYC and John Wynn Jones of EURIPA for making it happen.

Other hoolet online articles by John Gillies can be found at:
hoolet edition 40 - 6^th WONCA
hoolet edition 33 - 5 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Becoming a GP
hoolet edition 29 - Hearts in the Borders

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.