EAPCCT 2020 Congress Cancelled

 

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) – Update 8^th April 2020

As you know, the EAPCCT Board has been closely monitoring developments related to the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past several weeks with the health and safety of Congress attendees, exhibitors, volunteers, staff, and others as the priority.

Following the difficult decision to cancel the EAPCCT 40^th Congress scheduled to take place 19 – 22 May 2020 in Tallinn, Estonia, the Board has been busy working with our congress organisers, Grupo Pacifico, and our local Board member, Dr Raido Paasma, to minimise the consequences for our delegates, members and the Association as a whole.

 

I am pleased to inform you all registrations have now been refunded. Our congress organisers, Grupo Pacifico, worked very hard to get us the best deal possible regarding bank charges and we are very grateful to them for waiving their own administrative charges for the refund. We are also enormously grateful to members who have donated their fee to the Association – this is truly appreciated and will help to offset the losses that we encounter. Exhibitors have been given refunds or the ability to reserve spaces for next year.

 

For those who were sharing research during the EAPCCT Congress, we will publish all accepted abstracts in Clinical Toxicology as previously stated. We appreciate your patience as we work to determine how the planned scientific content for the EAPCCT 40^th Congress can still be utilised e.g. by looking into the possibility of using parts of the programme in next year’s congress.

 

Another important consideration is the General Assembly, particularly since this is an election year. We have now established that we will be able to handle this remotely through online communications and voting. Our webmaster, Dr Hugo Kupferschmidt, and web technician, Lloyd Fernando, are finalising the tools and we will send out the details together with the material for the Assembly in accordance with the requirements of the constitution. Please remember that you must be a paid-up member in order to participate in the proceedings and voting.

 

If you have any questions or concerns that are not addressed in this message, please be patient as we will provide further updates with additional details soon. The EAPCCT 2020 website will be frequently updated, and you can find a Q & A section there which we hope will be helpful.

 

Importantly: Please save the date for next year’s EAPCCT Congress, scheduled for 25 – 28 May 2021, in Palma de Mallorca, where we look forward to meeting colleagues and friends for the latest in cutting-edge research and information on clinical toxicology and poison centre activities.

 

On behalf of the entire EAPCCT Board, I wish you, your families and your work colleagues all the best in these difficult times and, above all, that you remain safe and healthy. Thank you for your continuing support and see you in Palma de Mallorca next year!

 

Martin Wilks

EAPCCT President