Dr Aine Harley from Belfast spoke at the MWIA Northern Europe meeting about the dire situation with
increasing rates of domestic violence in Northern Ireland, and the challenges that have emerged for healthcare
services due to the vacuum in policy-making while the Northern Ireland Assembly was dissolved. Dr Sarah
Fitzgibbon gave a summary of the career progression of women in medicine in Ireland where, despite more
than 50% of graduate and trainees being women for some years now, very little systemic workforce planning
takes this into consideration.
Dr Rose McCullagh, Dr Fiona McEvoy, Dr Olivia Butler, Dr Marguerite O’Riordan and Dr Corinna Wright
were also among the Irish doctors in attendance at the MWF meeting and it was a wonderful opportunity for
us all to meet with our Northern Europe colleagues (and those from further afield). Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon is the
unopposed candidate for the next Vice-President of the MWIA Northern European region and she will be
attending the Triennial Congress in Cairo in October – looking forward to meeting many more international
sisters there!
Fig 1. MWIA participants in the Northern Europe Business meeting