EJD Spring Meeting - General Assembly 2023 Outcomes Summary

SM2023 Highlights

The Meeting commenced on Friday with a warm welcome speech by her Excellence Minister of Health of the Republic of Latvia, Līga Meņģelsone, who wished us a fruitful meeting and stressed the value Junior Doctors’ views have in policy-making in healthcare. EJD Committee Chairpersons provided then updates on their committees’ work during the past 6 months, with a special remark on the qualitative research project “Diagnosis and proposals from European Junior doctors on Medical Workforce Planning”. Delegates then indulged into a rigorous discussion during the Topic Debate on “Medical Deserts”, accompanied by a panel of experts in the field. The General Assembly started on Saturday with the acceptance of Poland as a full member of EJD, continued with reports from Officers and Projects, election of UEMS representatives, a presentation by Spain on the organizing of the next Autumn Meeting-GA 2023 in Murcia, adoption of policy documents on “Burnout and Psychosocial Wellbeing” and “e-Health” and statements of support to Spanish and Irish junior doctors dealing with pressing issues in their countries.

Topic Debate on “Medical Deserts”

A moderated debate on the pressing issue of “medical deserts” was organized in two parts, facilitated by Sara Launio, EJD EU/EEA Committee Chair and Alvaro Cerame, MWF Committee Chair. During the first part, a panel discussion with our guest speakers from the European Commission/DG Sante B1 Performance of national health systems - Ms. Katarzyna Ptak-Bufkens, OASES (https://oasesproject.eu/) EU-funded project - Prof. Timo Sinervo, OASES WP5 leader and the Ministry of Health of Latvia - Ms. Aiga Balode, Acting State Secretary and Deputy State Secretary for Digitisation and Change Management took place that introduced different aspects of the topic to delegations. During the second part, Alvaro Cerame guided delegates into a constructive discussion on best practices to address the challenges that “medical deserts” pose for doctors in Europe, based on results from the feedback collected from delegations by the extraordinary section of the National Interim Reports.

Elections

The following EJD Representatives to UEMS Sections/Boards and MJCs were elected by the GA:

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – Juan Pablo Carrasco Picazo (Spain)

Gastroenterology – Elisabeth Steinsvik (Norway)

Intensive Care Medicine (MJC) – Elija Januskeviciute (Lithuania)

Phlebology (MJC) – Konstantinos Roditis (Greece)

Pneumonology – Florence Atrafi (Netherlands)

Radiology – Mindaugas Brazdziunas (Lithuania)

Surgery – Alexis Theodorou (Greece)

Thoracic Surgery – Emmanouil Kapetanakis (Greece)

Urology – Mick Uijldert (Netherlands)

Vascular Surgery – Konstantinos Roditis (Greece)

The following EJD Vice-Representatives to UEMS Sections/Boards and MJCs were elected by the GA:

Anaesthesiology – Veronika Baltmane-Veckalne (Latvia)

Neurosurgery – Markus Mieskolainen (Finland)

Pneumonology – Ferhat Beyaz (Netherlands)

Public Health (MJC) – Pablo Estrella Porter (Spain)

Intensive Care Medicine (MJC) – Lauri Husa (Finland)

Dates for next Meetings/General Assemblies

Next EJD Board physical meeting will take place from 15-16 September in Athens, Greece.

Next EJD Autumn Meeting - General Assembly will take place from 27-28 October in Murcia, Spain.