The European Commission published its Communication on “effective, accessible and resilient health systems” on 4 April 2014. The Communication was announced during the EU Summit on Chronic Diseases which took place in Brussels from the 3-4 April 2014.
This Communication provides recommendations to Member States on health system reforms in order to bolster resilience in times of crisis and to better ensure the future sustainability of Member States’ Health Systems. It is important to note that these are foreseen to be implemented through the Open Method of Coordination and through the European Semester Mechanism. Additionally, the Communication presents the European Commission’s intentions to propose actions in a number of areas and presents initiatives that will be proposed during the remainder of this mandate and the next.
The Communication is focused on three types of actions:
The eHealth-based information systems which comes within the remit of the “Improve resilience” ambit of the EC Communication is the most pertinent element of relevance for VPH, owing to the fact that the EC highlights the need to further develop effective and interoperable telemedicine services in order to facilitate and support the strengthening of information knowledge systems, delivering more “personalised healthcare”, which is “more targeted, effective and efficient and helps to reduce error”.
This EC Communication reconfirms the EU’s longstanding commitment to support Member States in their endeavours towards setting up sustainable health systems and provides valuable guidance for future Member State action, especially since the Council of Ministers urged Member State in December 2013 to further renew their health systems.
The communication is available here.
A press release on the report can be accessed here.
