WMJ 05 2011 - World Medical Association

National and Regional news
5. Create and develop healthy and sustainable
places and communities;
6. Strengthen the role and effect of the prevention
of ill health: prioritise investment
across government to reduce the social gradient.”
An interesting report on health equalities in
the different Member States of the CPME
membership will be soon published on the
CPME web-site (www.cpme.eu).
Task shifting
In its position paper on task shifting
CPME 2010/128 FINAL, the CPME
makes reference to the WMA resolution
of October 2008 and raises its particular
concern about the fact that task shifting is
often initiated by health authorities, without
consulting with physicians and their
professional representative associations.
The CPME emphasises that patient safety,
quality and continuity of care should be the
underlying objective of organisation and reforms
of healthcare. Therefore, task shifting,
if decided by health authorities, should only
be through consultation and in accordance
with the medical profession and not solely
as a cost saving measure.
Revision of the Clinical
Trials Directive
The CPME contributed to the Commission’s
consultation on the revision of the
Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC
(please see CPME 2011/037 REV2 FINAL)
and stressed the need to preserve ethical
principles in particular with regard to vulnerable
persons.
Climate Change
Through its immediate past president, Dr
Michael Wilks, the CPME is involved
in the United Nations Climate Change
Conference and sought together with the
WMA and WHO to make a change at the
last conference in Cancun. However, what
was almost universally apparent was that
little is understood about the beneficial
effects on health brought about by greenhouse
gas reduction. In addition to the work
on the global agenda, the CPME has joined
the EU’s recently established Green Infrastructure
working party. This initiative has
been created out of concern for the effect
climate change will have on biodiversity.
The uncertain effects on infectious disease
transmission and prevalence is just one example
of a damaging biodiversity impact,
but CPME’s membership has been additionally
welcomed because of its interest
in co-benefits, and therefore expertise in
emphasising within new Commission work
a “health in all” approach to all the EU’s climate
change work.
For more information on the CPME policy
on climate change and environmental
health, please see CPME 2011/059 FI-
NAL.
Current items high on
the political agenda for
European Doctors
Currently ongoing work of the CPME very
much focuses on two potential revisions of
directives of high relevance for the medical
profession in Europe: the European Working
Time Directive (2003/88/EC) and
the Professional Qualifications Directive
(2005/36/EC).
The future potential revision of the European
Working Time Directive is an issue
followed with high interest by the CPME
and its members. The CPME together with
AEMH, FEMS and EANA responded
to 2 nd phase social dialogue consultation
(CPME 2011/014 FINAL EMO). The response
recalled the objective of the Working
Time Directive which is protecting the
health and safety of workers. If the WTD –
as suggested by the Commission – is reviewed
solely in the areas of on-call time
and compensatory rest, the level of protection
(both doctors and their patients) will
decrease. Therefore, it is urged that the optout
clause is to be removed, on-call time is
working time as stipulated by the European
Court of Justice and compensatory rest has
to be granted immediately following longer
working periods as also stipulated by the
European jurisprudence. The CPME will
closely follow the political developments in
order to defend the interest of the European
medical profession.
The CPME is currently finalising its response
to the Green Paper of the European
Commission on the revision of the Professional
Qualifications Directive. As in its
earlier response to the Commission’s consultation
(http://cpme.dyndns.org:591/database/2011/cpme.2011-015.CPME.response.
PQD.consultation.Final.pdf), the CPME
pointed out that Directive 2005/36/EC has
made the migration of physicians in Europe
substantially easier. Access to professional
employment in other Member States of
the European Union has been made considerably
simpler by the minimum training
requirements set out in Article 24 of the
Directive. The medical profession provides
a prime example of the advantages of automatic
recognition with regard to (specialty)
designations and the minimum period of
specialty training. This needs to be maintained
and enforced provided that specialty
designations and the duration, content and
quality of specialty training are guaranteed.
In the context of the revision of the Professional
Qualifications Directive, the European
Commission also develops case studies
and pilot projects for the professions under
the directive. The CPME is rapporteur in
the Commission’s steering sub-group for
doctors and firmly maintains that any attempts
to speed-up and simplify the recognition
procedure through a professional
card and electronic communication tools
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