Paris – 1980

Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting, Paris, France, 10th-13th June 1980
Edited by Dr. Duncan Boldy, Chairman and M. Jean-Paul Dupinay, Organiser

The Opening Session

The 6th meeting of the Euro-Working Group, O.R. applied to health services, was held in Paris in June 1980 (10th-13th) in the buildings of the Central Administration of the “Assistance Publique à Paris”.   The 16 delegates were representing 10 countries and they presented 8 papers, 4 other papers were given by guest members.

The conference was opened by two speeches, the first one of Jean-Paul Dupinay, who organised the meeting in Paris, and the second one, traditional, of Duncan Boldy, the chairman of the group.

After having welcomed the delegates on behalf of the General Director of the “Assistance Publique”, Jean-Paul Dupinay indicates in a few words the main trend of the health politics in Paris for the five next years.  Then he describes the programme of the four workdays and he reminds that, as decided during the last meeting in Dublin, half a day would be devoted to the problem of Health Economics.

Then Duncan Boldy reviews the evolution of the work of the Euro-Working Group.  Since 1975, the group has met 5 times (in Exeter, Munich, Patras, Baden and Dublin) and the number of the delegates increased each year, Belgium excepted.  He reminds the meeting of the main objectives of the group:

1.      Co-ordination and dissemination of Health O.R. work in Europe,

2.      Organisation of seminars on specific Health O.R. topics,

3.      Setting up of joint European Health O.R. projects.

Duncan then points out the problem raised by the links between O.R. and government or Public Sector and shows that the working group on that topic did not give any good result.  Then he gives to the group some information about European and International Congress:

                        in Cambridge, 3 sessions devoted to Health

                        in Montreal, International Congress on the Health System

Duncan raises the question of the organisation of the organisation of the next meeting of the group : 3 or 4 possibilities, that are as follows:

            Denmark, but Lars Bostrup is not in Paris

            Norway, where Einar Matson is ready to welcome the group

            Italy

            Greece, where a bigger meeting will be held in Patras in 1981

The problem will be definitively solved during the last session.

Duncan ends with the apologies of Mark Fülleman and C. Mandl.

The Main Papers

Tuesday 10th June

Aris Sissouras presents to the group, in an informal way, his current work in Greece where his projects are the optimal location – allocation of Health centres and the organisation of Emergency transportations.

Clemens Dietrich delivers a paper about the model “Sanitätdienst” and its applications.  This model has been built in order to solve the military health needs during a war period.

Heinz Harland describes a cost model on which he can base an optimal location – allocation of Health centres.

Joseph van Aert presents a paper about the ambulatory cares in the Netherlands, their organisations between the first level (family physicians), the second level (specialists) and the third level (hospitals).

Wednesday 11th June

Einar Matson gives a paper about the possibility for generating an optimum solution for the total economy in the field of health services production (though decision mechanisms where queues and prices provide the bases for consumer choice).

John MacFarlane then describes a renewal theory of a hospital blood bank, tested against two maternity hospitals and one major hospital.

The afternoon is devoted to a visit of a brand new hospital built in the north of Paris (“L’hopital Bichat”) and a discussion with its manager.  This hospital is considered as the top one in France and profits from a very high medical technology and very modern systems of organisation.

Thursday 12th June

The morning session is devoted to the emergencies in Paris and their organisation.  The meeting is addressed by Jean-Claude Moidson, an engineer of the “Ecole des Mines” who is in charge of the current study on that purpose.

The problem is to organise an unique phone number (15) for all the emergency calls in Paris (number of calls, possible working scheme, cost of the different solutions).

During the afternoon, Jean-Pierre Willard (who was in Baden in 1978 and is responsible for the computing organisation of the ambulance service of the “Assistance Publique”) introduces Bastian Knoppers who gathers the most actual developments about O.R applied to emergency transportations.

At the end of the session a large discussion takes place about the future of the group, especially its extend and the possibility to join other working groups (for example, health economics).  The question of the next meeting is also raised.

Friday 13th June

The last session of the meeting is devoted entirely to the topic of Health Economics.  There are 4 papers, two of them given by guest members.

First H. Zollner, regional officer at the W.H.O. describes the main objectives of his organisation in the field of Health Economics.

Then the group is addressed by Dr. Dominique Jolly, the planning Director of the “Assistance Publique”.  His paper deals with the question of medical audits in hospitals in Paris and their specificity compared to audits made in the U.S.A.

The third paper is presented by M. Fagnani, a professor of economics and one of the assistants of Pr. Emile Levy at the University.  He speaks about the problem of the economical approach of a medical treatment; the example he proposes is the highblood pressure treatment.

Then Béatrice Majnoni D’Intignano, who is the economical adviser of the General Director, shows that a politic of health will be optimal both from the collective and the individual point of view if the value of human life is the same, whoever is concerned.

List of Delegates

Aris Sissouras – Greece

Cathal Lennon – Ireland

Elvezio Montesarchio – Italy

Michel Kirkels – The Netherlands

Joseph van Aert – The Netherlands

Einar Matson – Norway

Maria Jesus Rios – Spain

Maria Térésa Quilez – Spain

Märten Lagergren – Sweden

Duncan Boldy – United Kingdon

John MacFarlane – United Kingdon

Clemens Dietrich – West Germany

Heinz Harland – West Germany

H. Zollner – West Germany

Jean-Paul Dupinay – France

Beatrice Majnoni D’Intignano – France

Jean Pierre Willard – France

Members who don’t belong to the group but gave a paper during the meeting:

M. Fagnani – France

Dominque Jolly – France

J.C. Moisdon – The Netherlands

B. Knoppers – The Netherlands