Andrzej Rys

1

• Andrzej Rys
• Director of Public Health and Risk Assessment
• EU Health Prize for Journalists
• Media seminar
• Brussels, 29 October 2009

2
Europe for patients

• Aims
• tangible and readily understandable communication
  framework for policies and actions related to EU
  healthcare.
• single entry point to the complex world of EU
  healthcare policies
• coherent message about the vision and priorities
  in EU healthcare for partners and stakeholders

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• Launched byCommissioner Vassiliou30/9/2008
• Umbrella campaignannouncing11 healthpolicy
  initiatives
• All have acommon aimbetter healthcare for all
  in Europe

4
EfP initiatives

• 1) Directive on the application of patients'
  rights in the cross-border healthcare (adopted by
  the Commission 2/7/2008)
• Rules for receiving cross-border healthcare and
  reimbursement of these costs are not always clear
  or easy to understand
• Aim of the Directive is to
• provide more clarity about possibilities to seek
  healthcare in another Member State
• make clear who is responsible for quality and
  safety of care in cross-border settings
• strengthen cooperation in different areas, for
  example networks of centres of reference for
  specialised care

5
EfP initiatives

• 2) Rare diseases Commission Communication and
  Council Recommendation (Adopted 11/11/08). Aim is
  to
• Support setting up national plans and strategies
  for responding to rare diseases
• Improve recognition and visibility of rare
  diseases
• Encourage more research into rare diseases
• Create European reference networks to share
  knowledge and expertise and to identify where
  patients should go when such expertise cannot be
  made available to them
• European cooperation will help to bring together
  the scarce resources for rare diseases
• European action will help patients and
  professionals to collaborate across Member States
  in order to share and coordinate expertise and
  information

6
EfP initiatives

• 3) Organs Directive on setting standards of
  quality and safety of human organs intended for
  transplantation an Action Plan on Organ Donation
  and Transplantation (Adopted 8/12/08)
• 4) Health Workforce Green paper (Adopted
  10/12/08)
• 5) Patient safety Commission Communication and
  Council Recommendation on patient safety and
  quality of health services including the
  prevention and control of healthcare associated
  infections (adopted 15/12/08)
• 6) Cancer
• Report on implementation of the Cancer Screening
  Recommendation of 2003 (adopted 22/12/08 press
  launch 22/01/09)
• European Partnership for Action Against Cancer
  Communication adopted 24/6/2009 launch event
  29/9/2009)

7
EfP initiatives

• Seasonal flu vaccination Commission proposal for
  a Council Recommendation on seasonal flu
  vaccination (Adopted 8/7/2009)
• Alzheimers Commission Communication and Council
  Recommendation on Alzheimer's disease and
  dementia(Adopted 22/7/2009)
• 9) Prudent use of antibiotics
• 2nd report from the Commission on
  theimplementation of the Council recommendation
• European Antibiotic Awareness Day(18/11/2009
  ECDC and Commission)
• 10) Childhood immunisation Council
  recommendation on the cross-border aspects

8
EfP initiatives

• 11) Mental health
• On 13 June 2008, high level conference in
  Brussels launched the "European Pact for Mental
  Health and Well-being
• The Pact has 5 priority areas. Conferences will
  follow up work on these areas
• 1) Mental Health in Youth and Education
  (29-30/9/2009, Stockholm)
• 2) Prevention of Depression and Suicide
  (10-11/12/2009, Budapest)
• 3) Mental Health in Older People (21-22/4/2010,
  Madrid)
• 4) Mental Health in Workplace Settings
  (8-9/11/2010, Berlin)
• 5) Combating Stigma and Social Exclusion (2010,
  Lisbon)
• The Pact will lead to the following deliverables
  
• Overviews of activities
• An inventory of good practices the EU-Compass
  for Action on Mental Health and Well being
• Recommendations for action on the Pact's priority
  themes
• Action commitments

9
More targeted information

• Dedicated EfP website hosted on EU health portal
  health.europa.eu/efp
• In 22 languages
• EU documents, press releases, articles, speeches,
  events posted by the Commission
• Stakeholders and journalists can post events,
  news, articles

10
1st EU Health Prize for Journalists

• Aim to encourage good health journalism raise
  awareness of Europe for Patients issues
• 468 articles by 304 journalists from all 27 EU
  countries
• Average number of articles/country was 17,
  variations between 5 (Malta) and 44 (Italy)
• Most participants (ca. 70 ) women
• Most popular topics patient safety, cancer,
  mental health and organ donation and
  transplantation

11
Future cooperation

• As a follow-up of the Prize, building a network
  of journalists in the EU countries
• Would you be happy to receive regular information
  on EU health issues?
• Would you be able to feed us news, events etc. to
  be published on the Health Portal?
• Any suggestions?

12
Other health policy activities

• Partnerships with stakeholders
• Partnerships are cornerstones in EUs strategy to
  tackle health problems related to obesity and
  alcohol
• The EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical
  Activity and Health started in March 2005
• European Alcohol and Health Forum was set up in
  2007
• The aim is to create fora for actors at European
  level who can commit to concrete actions to
  contain or reverse current trends
• Member organisations range from industry to
  research institutes, health professionals,
  retailers, media, NGOs
• Performance of commitments is monitored and
  evaluated in a transparent, participative and
  accountable way databases are available in the
  Internet

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Other health policy activities Salt campaign a
European framework

• Common vision for a general European approach
  towards salt reduction
• Overall goal contribute towards reduced salt
  intake at population level to achieve the
  national or WHO recommendations
• Voluntary participation of Member States
• Supporting and reinforcing national plans
• comparable progress across EU
• maintain flexibility for Member States
• coordinated messages for EU food industry
• generate momentum measurable action

14
Other health policy activities

• Coordinating EU response to H1N1
• The Commission (DG Health and Consumers)
  coordinates the EUs response to the pandemic
  H1N1
• Commission is in permanent contact with the EU
  governments, ECDC, WHO
• Commissions Health Emergency Operations Facility
  (HEOF) in Luxembourg follows the evolution of the
  pandemic
• This mechanism includes a 24h/7 on-duty function,
  with daily reports on the epidemiological
  situation, on management issues and information
  to the public
• Latest information on the Commission website at
  http//ec.europa.eu/health/ph_threats/com/Influenz
  a/h1n1_en.htm

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• Otherhealth policy activities
• HealthyLife Years(HLY)
• indicator

16

• Otherhealth policyactivities
• HealthyLife Years(HLY)
• indicator

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• Questions
• Feedback
• health.europa.eu/efp