CPME Subcommittees, Board and General Assembly met on 13 and 14 March 2009 in Prague.

The following policy documents were adopted:
CPME reaction to the Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health EN/FR

Although the Green Paper addresses most of the CPME’s concerns, CPME would like to highlight some of the issues and put them higher on the priority list. These issues are: the scope of the workforce for health, ageing of the population, sustainability of health systems, demography and the promotion of a sustainable health workforce, Public Health capacity, training and managing mobility, global migration of health workers, impact of new technology, and the role of health professional entrepreneurs.

In addition to the considerations regarding these issues CPME wants to steer clear from any healthcare-system discussion and particularly on their respective advantages or disadvantages. In the case of entrepreneurial stimulation the above mentioned arguments show that a strict equality between public and private sectors would be needed in order to achieve the proposed actions.
In its response, CPME identifies several clear positions that it will submit to the European Commission for consideration.

CPME reaction to the Communication from the European Commission on telemedicine EN/FR
Telemedicine can make physical distance between patients and physicians a less important factor. Telemedicine can therefore provide better access to health care to people in remote areas, improve the quality of life of chronically ill patients and reduce hospital stays. Subsequently, this will not only be to the advantage of patients, but also advantageous for relatives and the health care sector in general.

Although telemedicine could also enhance inequity in health care. CPME therefore calls on health authorities and governments to ensure that new technology must be available to all, irrespective of their social or economic background. Furthermore, it is also the task of governments to find ways to contain the rising costs of providing health care and to find affordable ways to provide a reasonable level of care.

The development of telemedicine will most likely continue to be technological and market driven. Health care for the ageing population and self-management of chronic diseases will in the near future become a huge market for health care delivery. CPME therefore stresses that physicians must have a central role in the development of telemedicine and that the development should not be driven mainly by industry. Physician input is needed to ensure that telemedicine is developed in the best interest of the patient, as well as to the benefit of the medical profession.
Legal Control of Tobacco Products EN/FR The toll of disease and death caused by the use of tobacco products as recommended by their manufacturers is immeasurably greater than that attributed to the abuse of any drug which is universally classified as "dangerous" and subject to criminal sanctions. Therefore, The CPME calls for the tobacco manufacturing industry to be given ten years' notice of the Committee's intention to press for tobacco products to be classified as dangerous drugs and controlled accordingly. The CPME however strongly believes that smokers and users of other manufactured tobacco products should not be incriminated.

Achieving Healthcare information for all by 2015 EN/FR
The CPME recognises that the availability of relevant, reliable health information contributes to prevent death and suffering and to increase the efficiency of health systems.

The CPME supports efforts to improve the availability of healthcare information for professionally isolated healthcare providers in Europe.

Therefore, the CPME supports HIFA20151 and calls upon other European medical and health professional organisations and scientific societies to do the same and to actively contribute to the international dialogue.
End Water Poverty EN/FR
In order to address the global crisis in water and sanitation, CPME joins the End Water Poverty campaign2 and urges individual member associations to do the same. CPME calls on Governments to establish a Global Framework for Action to ensure sanitation and water for all; and to fulfil the commitment made in the EU Agenda for Action on the Millennium Development Goals.

Mental Health in workplace settings EN/FR The CPME recognizes the importance of mental health in workplace settings and strongly believes that having healthy working environments with the right preventive measures in place will contribute to a drop in work related mental health problems, a drop in absenteeism due to mental health disorders, a drop in accident related to work rates, an increase in self-confidence and employee morale in work populations and employees who are healthy and fit.

The CPME endorses the WMA Declaration of Helsinki EN/FR
The CPME endorsed the WMA Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, as adopted by the WMA General Assembly in Seoul, Korea in October 2008.

At its General Assembly meeting in Prague on 14 March 2009, the CPME elected the President and Executive Committee for the period 01/01/2010 to 31/12/2011:
President: Dr Radziwill, Poland
Vice Presidents: Dr Montgomery, Germany
Dr Kubek, Czech Republic
Dr Lemye, Belgium
Dr Pruckner, Austria
Treasurer: Dr Fjeldsted, Iceland
All CPME Policy documents are available at: http://www.cpme.eu/policy.php
For more information, contact:
Lisette TIDDENS-ENGWIRDA
CPME Secretary General
Tel.: +32 2 732 72 02
Fax: +32 2 732 73 44
e-mail: secretariat@cpme.eu
For more information about CPME, consult our website: http://www.cpme.eu
The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), representing about 2 million doctors through the National Medical Associations of the European Union / European Economic Area, aims to promote the highest standards of medical training and medical practice in order to achieve the highest quality of health care for all citizens of Europe.