ROAD MAP 2020: For quality care in Europe
European Commission – Key challenges for 2016-2020
EU action in the public health area is mainly linked to incentives and cooperation measures. The Commission has an important supporting role to play, providing guidance and tools to promote cooperation and help national systems operate more effectively. Actions focus on the following challenges:
- achieving greater cost-effectiveness;
- competitiveness together with safety;
- tackling emerging global threats;
- evidence-based policy making;
- addressing the risk factors of chronic disease.
Health First Europe – ROAD MAP 2020: For quality care in Europe
The next European political term is crucial towards supporting Member States to invest in health and understand the potential of the sector to create new jobs and growth for Europe. Investment towards reducing health inequalities contributes to social cohesion and breaks the vicious spiral of poor health contributing to, and resulting from, poverty and exclusion.
As Health First Europe continues its long-standing work in this area, we believe that the policy priorities for the EU institutions should focus on for delivering patient-centred, high quality care to all EU citizens in the forthcoming years.
Organisation of care
Health systems must be adapted to effectively address current healthcare needs which means developing community care (integrated health and social care at primary level), identifying and distributing good practice across the EU, fostering efficacy of treatments on a broad scale and facilitating health professional training and long term planning for the health workforce to deliver care more efficiently.
What the EU can do: Adopt a dedicated policy on community care
Based on: European Commission Communication on effective, accessible and resilient health systems (2014); Council Conclusions on the economic crisis and healthcare (2014); Europe 2020; Expert Group on Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) – Report “Tools and Methodologies to Assess Integrated Care in Europe” March 2017 and on Primary Care to be released in April 2018.
Access to health and social care
Health systems must prioritise innovations that support health promotion and prevention, early diagnosis and monitoring of disease to foster access to community care and ensure efficacy for both care and treatment. This must include mechanisms for equitable patient access to health information, carers and health technologies to facilitate patient free choice for how and where they receive care.
What the EU can do: Transparency, stakeholder involvement & training in health technology assessments; Strong national awareness raising on patient rights’ in cross-border healthcare
Based on: Patients’ Rights in Cross-border Healthcare Directive (2009)
Patient involvement
Improving patients’ health literacy, patient access to high quality information and supporting patients to share in health decision-making is imperative to implementing truly patient-centred care in European health systems. Patients must be involved in policy development, but also in bridging the gap between European legislation, and the average EU citizen, to achieve policy success.
What the EU can do: Develop guidelines for patient involvement in all health policies
Based on: Council Conclusions on Common values and principles in European Union Health Systems (2006); Council Conclusions on innovative approaches for chronic diseases in public health and health systems (2013); European Commission second implementation report on patient safety (2014);
Researching value of innovation in health
From patient safety, to health literacy and diagnosis, innovation (in its broadest sense) can support better quality of care by empowering patients. Greater research into the value of innovation in health must be better supported at EU level to demonstrate the need for long-term investment in innovation to national payers.
What the EU can do: Prioritise research on the value of innovation and harmonised data collection via EU funding programmes
Based on: Patients’ Rights in Cross-border Healthcare (2009); European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (2011); Horizon 2020 (2014)