Dear colleagues General Practitioners/Family Physicians and other Primary Health Care Professionals,

It’s a great honor for me to invite you to attend the 55^th EQuiP Assembly Meeting, which be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 29 & 30 March, 2019.

EQuiP, the European Society for Quality and Safety in General Practice, in collaboration with ELEGEIA, the Scientific Association of General Practitioners in Greece, organize the 55^th EQuiP Assembly Meeting under the main theme: “Healthy Practices, Healthy Professionals, Healthier Patients”

It will be a beautiful journey of learning and interaction about these 3 main topics of quality and safety in Primary Care.

Healthy Practices are essentials for the better performance of Primary Care Professionals, which finally contribute to the best possible outcome of the patient’s health. Practices are both the infrastructures, equipment, procedures, staff, ways of payment, patients list and many other things that affect the primary care setting on one hand and on the other hand the protocols, guidelines, disease thresholds, medication choices, communication skills, teaching patients ability and many others that we use in our everyday life in our work.

In Greece, especially during the financial crisis, all this kind quality parameters have severely affected. But also Europe faces similar problems due to instability of the population like aging and immigration.

According to professionals’ health, I invite you to discuss not only about the continuing growth of burnout and the urgent need to manage the maintenance of our own health but also the important role we play as health models to our patients.

Finally, healthy practices and healthy professionals must have, as a rational result, healthier patients. Don’t you agree?

We wait for you in Thessaloniki, next March, 2019, to discuss, reflect and interact with Experts in the field, across Europe and Greece, about topics that are affecting all of us, in order to provide qualitative healthcare, without harming our own health but improve it along with our patients’ health.

I am looking forward to welcome you in our beautiful Thessaloniki, which combines more than 3000 years of history with a modern way of living and many entertainment opportunities.

Kind regards

Sofia Dimopoulou
President of the meeting
Greek Delegate in EQuiP
ELEGEIA’s Chairwoman of Quality Assurance  Committee GP in Greece