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Health workers, innovation, financing and wellbeing: moonshots for better health

5 October 2022
News release
Brussels

Director OBS at at the European Health Forum Gastein 2022

Josep Figueras, Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, at the European Health Forum Gastein 2022. Credit: EHFG

Some of the key ingredients to achieve a true European Health Union took the stage in this year’s European Health Forum Gastein


Hundreds of policy-makers, health experts, community members and academics convened at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), in Austria, to discuss possible moonshots for a true European Health Union. The EHFG 25th anniversary coincided with the 10th anniversary of a collaboration between Eurohealth and the Forum, in late September 2022.

“If not now, when?” was the urgent call to action at the first edition of the conference in three years, at a time when Europe and Central Asia are living through a permacrisis that stretches beyond the pandemic, climate change and war.

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies led, co-led or participated in several sessions covering the crucial role that health workers play in health systems; opportunities for innovation; challenges in health systems financing; and a shift towards the economy of wellbeing. Below you can find key take-aways and related resources.


Scaling up, upskilling, and protecting the health workforce

  • A recent report by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, ‘Time to Act’, produced in collaboration with the Observatory, describes how the health and care workforce in all countries of the European Region currently faces severe challenges, namely related to age and mental health.
  • The density of nurses and doctors in Western Europe is significantly higher than in other parts of the region.
  • Change begins with simply acknowledging health workers’ challenges.
  • Health policy should put more effort in helping hospitals and primary health care organizations support their workforce.
  • Moving forward, health workers need a better work-life balance, adequate remuneration, training and research opportunities, and a positive culture at work.
  • “The pandemic has shown the strengths and fragilities of the health and care workforce. The recovery of health systems and future preparedness will fail unless we properly invest in health and care workers,” said Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of Country Health Policies & Systems at WHO/Europe.
  • Related resources:


Long COVID


Pharma strategies and access to novel medicines  


The financial challenge of developing innovative health systems 

  • Tax reforms and the end of tax havens are innovative actions that can improve tax systems.
  • “Money is not the problem; the problem is that we are not spending it right and we do not have people with the capacity to spend that money adequately,” said Vesna Kerstin Petrič, Director-General of the Directorate for Public Health at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia.
  • Evidence is already in place for health finance innovation; it now requires political will and power to implement it.
  • “We need innovative approaches to sustainable funding for our health systems to ensure they can be resilient and innovative themselves,” said Dimitra Panteli, Programme Manager at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
  • Related resources:


Economy of Wellbeing: from concept to practice

  • The economy of wellbeing is an investment rather than a cost; it’s about measuring prosperity in how people feel rather than in GDP.
  • Civil society organisations should be involved in developing wellbeing policies.
  • Common challenges in the economy of wellbeing include the lack of interactions between policy-makers from sectors such as economy, wellbeing and environment.
  • Finland showed that by focusing on the links between wellbeing and the economy we can achieve more equal health systems.
  • Related resources:


Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policy but were afraid to ask 

  • Authors of the third edition of the book presented an overview of this up-to-date review and analysis of European Union public health policies.
  • The book begins by explaining the basic politics of European integration and European policy-making in health, including the basic question of how the European Union (EU) came to have a health policy and what that policy does. Thereafter, it moves on to the three faces of European Union health policy.

Onwards, together: a moonshot for a true European Health Union

  • “The past 25 years have demonstrated that honest and evidence-based discussions in the Forum can turn into impactful health policy. The EHFG has proven central to the creation of a true European Health Union,” said Josep Figueras, Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
  • “By bringing together so many players in health and other policy areas, the EFHG can set the agenda for extending and completing the EU Health Union,” emphasized Clemens Martion Auer, President of the European Health Forum Gastein.
  • Working in silos prevents knowledge sharing. Partnerships require courage, risk, and trust; and trust is not built in a day.
  • “The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) knows that no country can cope with a crisis alone. We’ll stay in dialogue, listen to the needs and tailor our support,” said Andrea Ammon, ECDC Director.

 

You can follow the full coverage of Observatory sessions at the EHFG on Twitter at #OBSatEHFG.

 

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