Newsletter 156
Contents
Action of the week
Dear all,
I would like Medsin to sign the statement below, and would encourage you all to do so as individuals as well.
"We the undersigned strongly oppose the proposal that General Practitioners, and other primary care staff, be forced to charge refused asylum seekers or other undocumented migrants for NHS care."
The full statement and is available here. Medsin do not need to have a formal vote to sign as a result of the guidance statement which was passed at the Medsin AGA, but please get in touch before friday if you have any queries or concerns. Background information is available here.
Best wishes, Tom Yates
National News and Events
- Could your branch host the National Conference 2008?
- Voting at National Conference 2007, Dundee
- Child Protection policy
- AB Newsletter
- Working Together
- Join a delegation of IPPNW doctors and students (medAct)
- Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic conference
- Torture, turkeys, typhoons and trident
- ICAN Petition
International News and Events
- IFMSA March Meeting Applications NOW OPEN!
- Become a Medsin Trainer
- International Students Conference on Humanitarian Action
- Medical Peace Work online course, volunteer testers wanted
Anything Else
The St Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical School
Of the Month
Project focus: Marrow, a trans-national project
Website and News
The website is for YOUR events being held by YOUR branches, projects and campaigns. It is really, really easy to submit events and news, so please do, and let everyone know what wonderful things you are up to!
National News and Events
Could your branch host the National Conference 2008?
Organising a Medsin conference is an essential part of the network's annual activities and gives your branch the opportunity to play a really important role in raising awareness about global health issues amongst students.
Guidance is available form the National Committee throughout the process and we hope that you will benefit from the experience of branches who have previously organised conferences on behalf of Medsin.
If your branch is interested, you will have the opportunity to bid to host the meeting at the voting session that will take place on the Saturday afternoon of this year's National Conference in Dundee. You should think about getting a team together, have some ideas of themes and your capability to host the conference and present these to Medsin members at the voting session.
If you are interested or have any questions about organising the conference, please email the committee.
Voting at National Conference 2007, Dundee
An extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly of Medsin will take place at the National Conference in Dundee.
In other words, branch presidents, campaigns and projects coordinators will have a chance to represent their members by voting on issues central to the running of Medsin as an organisation.
The deadline for submission to changes of Medsin's constitution and bylaws is Friday 12th October 2007.
This is also the deadline for new project, campaign and branch proposals. If you would like to vote in a new project, campaign or branch, please get in touch with the national committee
Child Protection Policy
The Child Protection Policy, Implementation Policy and Incident Report Form have been added to the website following being accepted by the AGA in Southampton at the weekend. Any questions regarding this or how to implement the Child Protection Policy then get in touch with Emily.
AB Newsletter
The activities board is hoping to start a bi-annual newsletter to let you all know about the great things that the projects and campaigns have been getting up to over the previous 6 months. Find out more here.
Working Together
New (academic) year, New ideas - why not share these ideas with other Medsin projects on your local level or other Medsin branches? As they say two heads are better than one!! A presentation with ideas on working together, composed by the activities board at their meeting in January, can be found here.
Dialogue with Decision Makers
An INCREDIBLE opportunity.... Join a delegation of IPPNW doctors and students on:
- Thursday 4 October 11am Delegation to the Foreign Office
- Thursday 4 October 4 pm Delegation to the House of Commons with MPs
- Monday October 8 10am The European Commission
- Monday October 8 3pm NATO HQ
- Tuesday October 9 10am The European Council *Tuesday October 9 2pm The European Parliament
What you need to do: Send us passport info, and get briefed at the Nuclear Weapons Conference in London on 3rd or 4th October. Please contact ippnw.
Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic Conference
Preventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition, an International Conference hosted by the RSM and IPPNW. When: October 3 and 4, 2007. Where:London Complete programme is available here. Registration is now open, and is available online here.
Fees- students/nonstudents: two-days £45/£200, one-day £25/£130. Lucky you're students eh! (apart from the alumni... :p)
Torture, Turkeys, Typhoons and Trident
How are these relevant to your everyday professional life? How are these major global threats ? Are doctors part of the cause or the cure? Find out some answers and widen your clinical knowledge. Meet leading medical experts in the fields of conflict, refugee and torture care, environmental change, avian flu. Restore your professional morale – there is more to life than MTAS. A study day addressing global health issues and their impact will be held on Thursday 11th October 2007 at Charles Hastings Education Centre, Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester. Registration & Coffee 8.30 for 9.00am. STUDENTS £5! If you would be interested in attending please e-mail Jenny Murray
Many Thanks, Dr. Frances Hogwood – Course Organiser.
ICAN Petition: Medact and CND to urge the Government to abandon Trident
This Petition has been prepared by Medact and CND to urge the Government to abandon Trident replacement and promote a Nuclear Weapons Convention to facilitate the elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020. Please download and sign it and pass it on to friends and colleagues. Forms and information can be found on the Medact website.
International News and Events
MM08 Registration NOW OPEN!
The IFMSA March Meeting will be held in Monterrey, Mexico on 1-7th March 2008.
If you're interested in going to Mexico, learning about global health, meeting people from other cultures and developing skills please fill in the application form available here and email it to the committee by midnight on Friday 5th October.
There are always many more applications than places. For that reason you should spend time on your application form - you need to sell yourself. Feel free to change the sizes of the boxes in the word document, but bear in mind that the National Committee have to read lots of forms, so it's not advisable to waffle.
If you have any questions please email Gemma and have a look at the work of IFMSA. All Medsin members are invited to apply to be part of the Medsin delegation attending this meeting. Further details are available here
Become a Medsin Trainer!
BVMD training is proud to announce that the application process for the TNT Germany 2007 is now open for you!
Our Train the NewTrainers (TNT)-Workshop will take place on the 28th till 30th of November 2007 (arrival on the 27th) in the Youth Hostel Lauenburg near Hamburg.
The TNT will be held in English and is open for six international guests from IFMSA, so you are all very welcome to apply and be part of this event.
Right after the TNT, participants are going to bring their newly gained skills into action at the bvmd Workshop-Weekend on the 1st and 2nd of December in Hamburg itself.
Registration fee for the TNT is 100EUR and approximately 20EUR for the Workshop-Weekend and will cover food and accommodation.
Sooo, do you have experience in project management or leadership? Are you interested in sharing your knowledge and experience with others? Want to learn how? Then our TNT is the way to go!
Application Procedure is available here
International Students Conference on Humanitarian Action
Invitation to International Students Conference on Humanitarian Action 2007 (ISCHA07) from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th of October in Cologne, Germany - This is a great chance to learn more about humanitarian aid work with the chance to meet and greet with experts from big NGOs such as IRCC and MSF and hear speakers from the likes of the UN and the Worldbank. There is also the opportunity to present your project as well as hearing about other projects from many different countries and work together to come up with innovative ideas for humanitarian work. The conference will be in English and you can also get a chance to explore Cologne. For more information check out www.ischa07.de or email the team
Call for volunteers to test the Medical Peace Work online course
Medical Peace Work is an EU-funded project with aims to strengthen a new field of medicine and health sciences that deals with the role and professional responsibilities of health workers in violence prevention and sustainable peace building. The main focus of the project is production and collection of internet resources for medical peace education. They are currently finalising the e-learning course and are looking for volunteers who are willing to test the site and fill in an evaluation form.
If you have any questions regarding the project or would like to volunteer, please give them an e-mail
Anything Else
The following are not affilliated with Medsin, but we thought you might be interested.
The St Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical School
Ethiopia is amongst the world's poorest countries and has less than 1800 doctors to treat over 80 million people. Most doctors qualifying from the country's five medical schools leave on graduation to work in the United States.
St Paul's Hospital is a new medical school which will open in 2008. At least 30% of the intake will be from the poorest areas of Ethiopia and at least 30% will be women. A new integrated curriculum to produce doctors fit for purpose for Ethiopia has been developed.
The problem is finding doctors in Ethiopia to teach and train the students. I am looking for volunteers, either medical students or doctors, who are available for a minimum of two weeks, to teach and train both clinically and in the basic sciences.
Modules in 2008 will include: the foundation of health and disease, the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, the gut and nutrition. In addition, the opportunity to provide assistance with community based health and research projects will be available. Experience of IT and long distance learning would be great appreciated.
Volunteers will need to be available for a minimum of two weeks starting in early 2008. At the moment we are not in a position to pay expenses although we can offer accommodation. We are looking for grants from the Royal Colleges and institutional donors, but in the meantime volunteers will need to be self-funding.
For more information please contact Professor G Williams, Dean of the medical school at gwillians@hhnt.org until 12 October and then gorwilliams@yahoo.com thereafter.
Of the Month
Project focus: Marrow: A Trans-national Project
At the 57th IFMSA General Assembly held this summer in Canterbury, UK, Marrow was awarded trans-national project status. This was the culmination of several years of hard work by different national Marrow co-ordinators and members of the Medsin national committee. Acquiring trans-national status means that Marrow, a project that has existed in the UK for the past 10 years, is now internationally recognised by IFMSA affiliated national member organisations. This will undoubtedly be beneficial in helping to establish Marrow in other countries around the world.
Marrow was created in 1998 by medical students from Nottingham University. It has since grown to become one of Medsin’s biggest projects, with branches in every UK medical school and some overseas institutions. In 2006 it won the IFMSA’s Rex Crossley Award for best international project. An application for trans-national status was first proposed in 2005 by the then national committee. The application included detailed explanations of what Marrow aims to achieve and the means by which will go about this, the setting and discussion of a ten year plan, including long and short term objectives and support for overseas groups.
Following several re-submissions over the past two years, each time after improving on previous criticisms from the project proposals review committee, trans-national status was finally granted this year.
Mark Prince National Co-ordinator
See the Marrow page for more info.
Last updated on Tuesday 04 December 2007 at 00:48.
