The 6^th Primafamed workshop on “Capacity Building and Priorities in Primary Care Research” focused on  primary care research – the current situation, the priorities for research and the need for capacity building.

 The African PC Consensus on Research attached gives a summary of the consensus on these matters that emerged from the workshop. We encourage you to forward  this document to all you think might be interested in this report.

 All other relevant documents related to the workshop can be found on:

·        the Primafamed website, or

·        the webpage of the EuropeAid project on strengthening primary health care through primary care doctors and family physicians (click on Primafamed

 Photos of the event can be found on https://www.facebook.com/stelfammed#!/stelfammed/photos_stream.  

 Kind regards,

 Marianne Van Lancker

 Primafamed Network, Coordination Office

University Hospital Gent,6K3

De Pintelaan, 185

9000 Gent

Belgium

Tel: +32 332 35 42

www.primafamed.ugent.be

The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire in hostilities as Western ministers make plans to discuss the conflict at Iran talks…..1 2 3 4

A budget spending monitoring forum says the department is on the verge of collapse and is R700-million in debt…..more

Farmworkers claim they had been underfed and underpaid, and that they had begged for food….more

Region’s presidents are increasingly striking a new cautious tone despite global optimism…. 1 2

A STANDARDISED nursing sector is could be in sight as the Department of Health has launched a strategy to improve monitoring of nursing institutions and new nurses, and do away with “illegal nursing training colleges”…..more

THE Treasury’s latest proposals for regulating health insurance are poorly drafted and threaten to send the medical schemes industry into a “death spiral”, a leading health economist warned on Tuesday….more

Flavia Rachel Tshabalala who worked in the Wits School of Civil Engineering, was found dead in her flat in Soweto bypolice. She was allegedly stabbed to death. The young woman who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, JoziFM DJ Donald Sebolai on Sunday, worked at Wits University as a secretary. She was also the step-daughter of Ward 11 Committee member Mr Michael Sibisi and patient at Chiawelo Community Practice……more + Wits Statement

The Patient Information Forum (PiF) is the UK association for professionals that work in the field of consumer health information. (I would be interested to learn of other similar associations, especially in low- and middle-income countries – indeed, is there a global “Patient Information Forum”?). The website is http://www.pifonline.org.uk/

PiF is creating ‘the UK’s first practical, producer-led guidance and best practice on creating great health information resources…’

The report is available here: http://www.pifonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Report-on-engagement-events-creating-health-information-that-really-works-June-2014.pdf

‘… a number of issues appeared consistently across all topics and arguably form a set of overarching principles for creating

consistently good health information. These principles include (this list is not exhaustive):

1. Have a clear purpose for the information and share this with all involved

2. Talk to and involve potential users from the start and throughout: ‘follow the information user at all stages’

3. Less is more…keep information simple and clear

4. Personalise information wherever possible; one size does not fit all

5. Make sure information works in the ‘real world’ for all involved or affected

6. Check what’s already available and think outside your organisation: link to and share good work, knowledge and expertise across professional boundaries and across the professional/patient/public boundary

7. Information shouldn’t stand alone. It needs support, so it can become knowledge, education and empowerment.’

Best wishes, Neil

Officials from the SPCA found animals either dead or starving at the Danmel farm, Modderfontein , Potchefstroom farm belonging to former North West premier and newly-elected National Council of Provinces chairperson, Thandi Modise. Some of the animals were taken to the Vereeniging SPCA. Thandi Modise’s remaining 85 pigs on the farm had begun cannabalising the 58 dead pigs, and were reportedly drinking their own urine….more

Are doctors confused by statistics? A new book by one prominent statistician says they are – and that this makes it hard for patients to make informed decisions about treatment….more

Nineteen-year old Lindokuhle Sobhekwa, who is in his final year at school, began photographing nyaope smokers in his East Rand neighbourhood last year….more