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Report
4th of
the EAPC
Barcelona,
Spain, December 1995
The
4th Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain, in December 1995.
This was the first Congress of the EAPC organised at the same
time as the Congress of a national association (SECPAL). On
behalf of the EAPC, the Chairman of the Scientific Committee
conducted a survey on suggested topics. More than 200 international
experts sent in their proposals, many of which were included
in the programme.
The
importance attached to this event was evident from the active
participation of Jordi Pujol, the President of Catalonia,
who chaired the closing ceremony, and the Minister of Health
of Catalonia, Xavier Trias, who gave a plenary lecture during
the Congress. The official languages were Spanish, English
and French, for which simultaneous translation was available.
The
programme included a total of 218 speakers from 23 countries
and 13 different professions; they gave 14 keynote addresses
and 285 different lectures combined in 110 sessions. Topics
included special aspects of palliative care in oncology, geriatrics,
AIDS and paediatrics. The total number of abstracts submitted
was 539, of which 433 were accepted as posters and 49 included
in the programme as oral presentations.
A
new feature of this Congress was the concluding session. Immediately
after every session, each chairperson had to select three
main conclusions and recommendations, write them out and hand
them to the organising committee's office. The reporters collected
these papers and prepared about ten main points which were
presented at the concluding sessions giving clear, concise
synopses of the issues discussed. There were 1,663 participants
from 45 different countries from all five continents.
The
'Barcelona Declaration' on the need to implement palliative
care was distributed to all the Ministries of Health of the
participating countries and to all members of the EAPC. The
proceedings were published in mid-1997. This volume, which
is about 700 pages in length, contains 150 papers of the presentations
given during the Congress.
The
Chairs of the Organising Committee were Dr Jordi Roca i Casas
and Dr Xavier Gomez-Batiste from Spain. The Chair of the Scientific
Committee was Dr Franco De Conno from Italy.
Support
and contributions were given by the following official organisations
and associations: the President of Catalonia, the Ministry
of Health of Catalonia, Junta Provincial de Barcelona, Fundacion
Melchor Colet, Iberia & Aviaco.
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