Family Medicine in Protracted Crises: Responsibility, Solidarity and the Practice of Care
Gabriele GAZZANEO, Dimitrios VASILAKIS, Martha KARYDA and Mohamed EMARA
Violent conflicts and prolonged crises increasingly undermine primary healthcare systems, generating forced displacement, poverty, and fragmented service delivery. In such settings, family doctors are often the most accessible and continuous point of care, while facing profound ethical, clinical, and organisational challenges. These contexts test core principles of family medicine, including equity, continuity of care, and commitment to the social determinants of health.Participants will be able to: 1. Identify key ethical and professional challenges faced by family doctors in protracted crisis settings. 2. Describe the main legal and ethical frameworks protecting healthcare workers and facilities in situations of crisis. 3. Analyse how disruption of primary care affects equity and social determinants of health. 4. Reflect on strategies to support professional responsibility, solidarity, and ethical decision-making under extremeconstraints.The workshop will combine short expert inputs with experience-based narratives and facilitated plenary discussion. Teaching methods will include brief structured presentations, practice-based reflection, and guided discussion to promote peer learning and transferability across European contexts • Introduction (5 minutes) • Ethical and legal foundations of healthcare protection in protracted crises (10 minutes): contribution by an independent UNνappointed expert in international humanitarian law and human rights • Primary care practice under extreme constraints (10 minutes):testimony from a family doctor working in a protracted crisiscontext • Operational challenges and professional integrity in humanitarian primary care (10 minutes): reflections from a project coordinator working with an international medical humanitarian NGO • Facilitated plenary discussion (20 minutes), focusing on responsibilities, transferable lessons, and implications for European family medicine • Conclusion (5 minutes)Participants will gain increased awareness of ethical and professional responsibilities in crisis settings, improved understanding of how system disruption affects equity and access to care, and transferable insights to inform clinical practice, education, and advocacy within European primary care.This workshop offers a structured educational space to engage with ethical, legal, and professional dimensions of care delivery in protracted crises. Beyond clinical and organisational challenges, it addresses the ethical implications of professional and institutional silence, a topic increasingly discussed within the global health and medical literature, and encourages an active, equity-oriented professional stance.
