WONCA World Rural Health Conference Abstracts 2022
WONCA World Rural Health Conference, 17–20 June 2022 at the University of Limerick, Ireland
The University of Limerick School of Medicine, The Irish College of General Practitioners and The Rural, Island and Dispensing Doctors of Ireland have successfully hosted the WONCA World Rural Health Conference (WRHC) in Ireland in June 2022. The 4-day conference was majestically opened by The Clew Bay Pipers, who enthralled attendees and keynote speakers alike, and finished with participants drumming themselves out of the concert hall, after a very successful drumming workshop. The exit march was most poignant as, just prior, participants had ubiquitously agreed to support the ‘Limerick Declaration on Rural Health Care’.
A wide range of collaborating organisations were vital for the conference’s success; these included:
Located centrally on the west coast of Ireland, with a large and very beautiful rural hinterland, the University of Limerick was an ideal site to host the WRHC. Ireland has one of the largest rural-based populations in Europe, with a million people living rurally, and another million people living in a whole host of small towns and villages.
Over 180 pieces of research were presented in oral and poster sessions during the 4-day conference, along with 35 skills workshops and 24 ‘rurally inspired’ open microphone passion-project talks. Attendance was well above 600 persons, and the social aspects of this conference were equally well received.
To give you the flavour of the conference, and to demonstrate some of the outstanding work being pursued on rural healthcare topics, the conference abstract book appears below.
Peter Hayes
Scientific Chair WONCA RHC Limerick 2022
Glynn L, Murphy AW, Scully R, Strasser R, Quinlan D, Cowley J, Hayes P, O’Donnell P, O’Regan A, Tuli S, Santana MA, Sparrow-Downes VM, Petrazzuoli F, Nowlan S, Collins C, Fogarty F, MacFarlane A, Wynn-Jones J, Chater AB.
Published 10 January 2023 Europe
This conference declaration, the Limerick Declaration on Rural Health Care, an outcome of the 19th World Rural Health Conference in Limerick, Ireland in 2022, is designed to inform rural communities, academics and policymakers how to achieve the goal of delivering high quality health care in rural and remote areas most effectively, with a particular focus on the Irish healthcare system. Congruent with current evidence and best international practice, the participants of the conference endorsed a series of recommendations for the creation of high quality, sustainable and cost-effective healthcare delivery for rural communities in Ireland and globally.
Conneely M, Leahy A, O’Connor M, Gabr A, Okpaje B, Saleh A, Corey G, Barry L, Griffin A, O’Shaughnessy Í, Ryan L, O’Carroll I, Leahy S, Trépel D, Ryan D, Robinson K, Galvin R.