PS2 10.14
DRAFT MINUTES SECTION OF PSYCHIATRY, 25 and 26 April 2014
DRAFT Minutes
1. Present:
1. Prof. Jose Luis Ayuso Mateos, Spanish Society of Psychiatry
2. Dr Maria Fé Bravo Ortiz, Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry
3. Dr Andrew Brittlebank, Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK); Vice President for Training
4. Dr Marisa Casanova Dias, EFPT* (President)
5. Mr Elen Cook, Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK); Administrator
6. Dr Rachael Cullivan-Elliott, The College of Psychiatry of Ireland
7. Dr Jozef Dragasek, Slovak Psychiatric Association
8. Professor Silvana Galderisi, European Psychiatric Association
9. Dr Luiz Carlos Gamito, Portuguese Medical Association
10. Dr Dan Georgescu, Swiss Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; Vice President for CME
11. Professor Edvard Hauff, Norwegian Medical Association
12. Professor Thea Heeren, Dutch Psychiatric Association; Officer
13. Dr Marc Hermans, Belgian Professional Association of Medical Specialists in Psychiatry; President
14. Dr Olle Hollertz, Swedish Medical Association
15. Professor Fritz Hohagen, German Society of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology
16. Dr Torsten Jacobsen, Danish Psychiatric Association; Honorary Secretary
17. Dr Blanka Plesnicar, Psychiatric Association of Slovenia
18. Dr Krzysztof Krysta, Polish Psychiatric Association
19. Dr Andreas Landsnes, Norwegian Medical Association
20. Dr Zoltan Makkos, Hungarian Psychiatric Association
21. Dr Amit Malik, Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK)
22. Dr Maria Nilson Markhed, Swedish Medical Association
23. Dr Joergen Nystrup, Danish Psychiatric Association
24. Dr Anastasios Papakonstantinou, Hellenic Association of Professional Psychiatrists
25. Dr Mariana Pinto Da Costa, President Elect, EFPT
26. Dr Vincent Ryckmans, Belgian Professional Association of Medical Specialists in Psychiatry
27. Dr Tanja Svirskis Finish Psychiatric Association
28. Dr Catalina Tudose, Romanian Psychiatric Association
29. Professor Florin Tudose, Romanian Psychiatric Association
30. Dr Roland Urban, Professional Association of German Psychiatrists
*European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees
2. Apologies
1. Dr Raisa Andrezina, Latvian Psychiatric Association
2. Dr Argyris Argyriou, Cyprus Psychiatric Association
3. Dr Mohamed Fouad Benchekroun, Moroccan Psychiatric Society
4. Dr Mohamed Amine Benjelloun, Moroccan Psychiatric Society
5. Dr Bejaminas Burba, Lithuanian Psychiatric Association
6. Dr Brendan Cassidy, Irish Medical Organisation; Treasurer
7. Dr Jean-Marc Cloos, Luxembourg Society of Psychiatry Pedopsychiatry and Psychotherapy
8. Dr Sándor Fekete, Hungarian Psychiatric Association
9. Dr Tsvi Fischel, Israeli Psychiatric Association
10. Dr Cécile Hanon, European Psychiatric Association
11. Dr Nikolina Jovanovic, Croatian Medical Association and EPA Early Career Psychiatrists Committee
12. Dr Anne Kleinberg, Estonian Psychiatric Association
13. Dr Biruta Kupcha, Latvian Psychiatric Association
14. Dr Simon Kyriakides, Cyprus Psychiatric Association
15. Dr Klára Látalová, Czech Psychiatric Association
16. Dr Brigitte Mauthner, Austrian Medical Chamber
17. Dr Matthijs Muijen, World Health Organisation
18. Dr Michael Musalek, Austrian Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
19. Dr Peter Pregelj, Psychiatric Association of Slovenia
20. Dr Michal Raszka, Czech Psychiatric Association
21. Dr Florian Riese, Swiss Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
22. Dr Joseph Saliba, Medical Association of Malta/Maltese Association of Specialists in Psychiatry
23. Dr Christa Schaff, UEMS CAP
24. Dr Halis Ulas, Psychiatric Association of Turkey
25. Dr Minna Valkonen-Korhonen, Finish Psychiatric Association
26. Dr Veiko Vasar, Estonian Psychiatric Association
27. Dr Livia Vavrusova, Slovak Psychiatric Association
28. Dr Taner Yilmaz, Psychiatric Association of Turkey
3. Welcome and opening remarks by the President
Dr Jose Luis Ayuso and Dr Maria Bravo Ortis introduced Dr Jose Javier Castrodeza Sanz, the Director General of Professional Appointments in Spain. Dr Castrpdeza Sanz welcomed all the Delegates to Spain, and explained that his department was working on the current training framework for psychiatry training and a new specialty in child and adolescent psychiatry. He commented that his department was committed to getting the best value for medicine. The Section meeting coincided with an important day for medical trainees who were selecting their specialties.
Dr Marc Hermans thanked Dr Castrodeza Sanz for the warm welcome and for making the rooms at the Ministry of Health in Madrid available for the Section to use. Dr Hermans commented that the Section's experiences in Spain had always been positive and he hoped that this continued in the future.
Dr Hermans explained that there were some changes and additions to the agenda:
· item 9.b: a report from Professor Thea Heeren, Section Officer, would be added to the agenda.
· Item 19 would be taken before 17 to better inform the group discussions about communication strategy.
· The discussions about the budget would be postponed until the autumn meeting as the Treasurer was not able to attend the meeting due to work commitments. The Section would still be asked to approve the 2013 accounts.
4. New Members
Dr Torsten Jacobsen welcomed the new members of the psychiatry section to the meeting;
Dr Olle Hollertz from the Sweden Psychiatric Association, Dr Krysta Krzysztof from the Polish Psychiatric Association and Dr Anastasios Papakonstantinou from the Hellenic Association of Professional Psychiatrists. He also welcomed the invited guests from the Romanian Psychiatric Association; Dr Catalina Tudose and Professor Florin Tudose. Dr Jacobsen commented that he hoped that the Romanian guest would soon be welcomed as full Section Members once their National Medical Association had approved their nominations as National Delegates.
5. To approve the minutes of the last meeting
The minutes were approved with the following change:
15.b. EFPT
Second Paragraph to read
The EFPT Brain Drain survey (on workforce migration amongst psychiatry trainees) was currently being carried out in 15 European Countries. The EFPT were keen to involve more countries in the study and Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa asked the National Psychiatric Association to assist them in making contact with the trainees in their countries in order to increase the involvement with this EFPT study.
6. Report from Dr Torsten Jacobsen, Honorary Secretary
The Honorary Secretary, Dr Torsten Jacobsen, explained that Professor Silvana Galderisi has assisted the Section in contacting the Treasurer of the Italian Psychiatric Association in the hope that arrangements could be made that would allow the association to return to the Section. The Italian Psychiatric Association had not paid any subscriptions for over 8 years and had not sent a Delegate for a number of years. Dr Jacobsen explained that in 2010 the Section agreed that Italy should be asked to pay for the last 3 years of missed subscriptions and that the remainder of the dept would be written off. The Italian psychiatric association had said that they would not be able to meet those terms. Dr Jacobsen was now bringing the issue to the Delegates again in order to ask for a different approach to be considered. Dr Jacobsen explained that the Officers were in favour of forgiving the dept if it meant that Italy would rejoin the Section, but that this was not a decision that they could make without the consent of the Section. The delegates discussed the ramifications of writing off the dept but were in agreement that financial issues should not be a barrier to a country participating in the work of the Section. It was agreed that Italy would be asked to pay for the subscription for the present year only and that the past debt would be written off. This arrangement could also benefit Iceland. The Delegates commented that they hoped that this gesture of good will would not be abused and that countries would continue to be consistent members who participated in the work of the Section.
Dr Jacobsen would contact the Italian’s with this proposal. Dr Jacobsen also thanked all the delegates whose continuing commitment and attendance was essential to the work of the Section. Dr Hermans commented that he had written to Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Armenia and invited them to join the Section.
Serbia and Bulgaria were also eligible to join and it was hoped that they would take up this opportunity soon.
Action:
Dr Jacobsen to contact Italian Psychiatric Association
7. Report from the Vice President for CME
Dr Dan Georgescu, the Vice President for CME reported that in 2013 he had received 31 requests to review EACCME events. This work had earned €7,1000. The new sharing rules meant that the fee charged to the event organizer for this work was split between the National Association, the relevant UEMS Section and between UEMS EACCME. Dr Georgescu explained that he has asked UEMS EACCME for an evaluation of the requests that he had been asked to do and that there were some unanswered questions on these evaluations that UEMS EACCME had yet to answer. In particular there were questions about the expected number of attendees at events (which affected the charge levied for the review). Dr Georgescu gave an example of one review where the anticipated attendance at the time of application was 2000 while the same event was attended by 10000 delegates. There were also problems within the UEMS EACCME and completed reviews had not been passed on to the relevant bodies.
The delegates discussed the importance of transparency in this process, particularly when financial transactions were involved. Dr Hermans explained that he had raised questions about the EACCME process at the meeting in Brussels. The Secretariat was currently overloaded with work and this was causing the problems. Dr Hermans and Dr Georgescu had asked for the list of all accredited events to be published by the UEMS EACCME office and there was an agreement that such a list would be produced every six months. It was hoped that this arrangement would lead to greater transparency.
Dr Hermans thanked Dr Georgescu for continuing to carry out this important work on behalf of the Section.
8. Report from the Vice President for Training
Dr Andrew Brittlebank, Vice President for Training said that there were three main items to report on. Firstly he updated the delegates on the update of the Quality Framework and Chapter 6. For the benefit of the new delegates, Dr Brittlebank gave some background to this topic; the UEMS “Charter for Postgraduate Training” was designed to support the free movement of professionals in Europe so that doctors would have comparable competencies regardless of where they completed their training. Each Specialty Section within the UEMS was invited to write their own “Chapter 6” of the Charter outlining the competencies in their specialty. Specific groups within the Section had been tasked with writing this chapter. In addition to this work, the Quality Framework was aimed at National and local agencies setting their own curricula as a quality assurance tool. UEMS Brussels had recently decided to change the format of Chapter 6 and the Section was taking this opportunity to look again at the competencies and to look at the details included in the document. The newly formed Standing Committee on Training – for which elections would take place during the meeting – would move forward with this work.
Secondly, Dr Brittlebank explained that the purpose of CESMA (the Council for European Specialists Medical Assessment) was set up as an advisory body of the UEMS with an aim to provide recommendation and advice on the organisation of European examinations for medical specialists at the European level. Some UEMS medical specialties such as ophthalmology, surgery and respiratory physicians were moving to a knowledge based Europe wide exam and this was something that the Section needed to be aware of and to consider carefully. The delegates had a lengthy discussion about the purpose, benefits and pitfalls of Europe wide assessments and exams. There was general agreement that knowledge based tests – be they multiple choice or not – could only ever be part of a wider process of assessment in psychiatry. The Delegates agreed that some of the main problems for a Europe wide exam were language issues, differences in the culture of assessment across Europe and the limitation of any examination tool. Delegates also discussed the possible benefits of a Europe wide exam which included greater employment opportunities and would help to fill the need for harmonisation that was needed in Europe. Dr Joergen Nystrup commented that the MJC on Sexual Medicine had already established a Europe wide exam that was well respected and recognised. Other specialties also had good examples of a Europe wide exam being successful. There were also discussions about having a European Log Book for trainees to compliment any written or multiple choice exams. Delegates agreed that there was a need to move forward with the idea of a Europe wide exam for psychiatry. Dr Brittlebank said that the Standing Committee on Training would develop a discussion document on whether or not the Section should work with CESMA to develop a multiple choice exam in psychiatry and would also produce a guidance paper on portfolio production and use. As part of this process, Delegates were asked to send the log book for their own country to Mrs Elen Cook.
Actions:
Europe wide exam / guidance on log books to be added to SCT agenda
All delegates to send Mrs Cook a copy of the log books used in their country
The third and last item that Dr Brittlebank wanted to bring to the attention of the Delegates was the EPA Board of Education. Dr Brittlebank had attended a meeting of this group in March 2014 and discovered that they were publishing a paper on postgraduate training in Europe. The EPA was preparing to call for the development of a European qualification in psychiatry. Dr Brittlebank’s involvement in this group provided an opportunity to showcase the work of the Section had been doing in Quality Improvement and to share experiences on this issue.
9. Report from Dr Brendan Cassidy, Honorary Treasurer
As Dr Cassidy was unable to attend the meeting, Dr Jacobsen and Professor Heeren took the Delegates through the financial accounts of the Section. Delegates were asked to voice any questions that they had about the accounts so that these could be sent to Dr Cassidy for a response.
Professor Heeren went through the details of the budget – although the approval of the budget would be delayed until the October 2014 meeting. Professor Heeren explained that much of the debt owed to the Section had been written off as it was not expected that it would ever be received. Professor Edvard Hauff asked for confirmation that Norway had now paid its subscription – the Officers were able to confirm that their subscription had now been received. The Delegates approved the Financial Statement.