Annual General Meeting 2021-President’s Speech and welcome to Dr. Chris Vassallo, Guest Speaker – Current and new medicines for RMD’s
We thank you for joining us at our 15th Annual General Meeting. Our last Annual General Meeting was held on 31st July 2020. This is the second AGM during the Covid-19 pandemic, although last year we managed to meet face to face with great respect to mitigation measures as announced by the Health Authorities at the time. Mrs. Vella informed all present that Mrs. Sina Bugeja, ARAM’s Vice-President will moderate this year’s virtual AGM. Whilst I welcome you to this year’s Annual General Meeting, I start by thanking the Executive Committee Members of ARAM for their ongoing hard work and dedication and for the valuable work each one is doing voluntarily. I am happy to note that all our patient members are very appreciative of our input towards the Association. For us all this year was not an easy year, however, we found alternative ways how to remain in touch with our treasured members. I wish to give you a very brief account of all the activities carried out by ARAM since our last AGM in July 2020. The issue of the change and switching of medicines to patients suffering from any type of Arthritis that occurred at the pharmacy level (without the consultation of one’s specialist). As a patient organization we are working very hard to ensure that the EULAR recommendations are respected and undertaken by the authorities. We are currently in communications with the Ombudsman (Health) to ensure that our patient members will receive the best possible treatment. I take this opportunity to thank ARAM members who shared their personal experiences through printed and social media. We celebrated World Arthritis Day 2020 with a virtual conference on the 21st of October 2020. Thanks to the support offered by Vivian Corporation Malta we managed to organize a very well attended conference. Amongst the distinguished guests who contributed towards the success of the conference, we had The Commissioner for Mental Health, Dr. John M Cachia, Dr. Patrick Galea who talked about E-Health and the importance of telemedicine in the health system. Thereafter, Mr. Sebastian Micallef shared his experience as a patient. He spoke about his personal experience and how he found E-Health useful especially throughout the time of the pandemic. The President, Mrs. Vella proceeded to give a brief account of current tasks being undertaken by the Executive Committee for the year 2021, namely, our applications for funds presented to Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector (Emergency Funds and SIS Funds; two research programs with regards to Osteoarthritis, one on a national level and another on a bigger scale on a Pan-European level; the upcoming AGORA conference hosted by ARAM on the occasion of its 10th Anniversary; the launch of two subgroups, one launched today, Young ARAM Group, as well in the coming weeks, the launch of the GOZO ARAM Group; as well as the Transfer of Knowledge Program in conjunction with EULAR and Arthritis Ireland.Mrs Vella once again thanked all for attending this year’s Annual General Meeting and sought approval from members present of the Minutes of last year’s AGM as well as the Financial Report for the year 2020 presented at this AGM.
