Attendees of major conference engage in several sessions and collect more than 700 publications from the Observatory to help strengthen health systems and prepare for the unexpected
Public health experts from around Europe engaged in 14 sessions organised by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies at the European Public Health (EPH) Conference in Berlin, Germany. Hundreds attended a plenary session that launched a new policy brief on health systems performance assessment ( (HSPA), with a focus on using data to improve population health.
More than 2,000 professionals in the field of public health attended the first in-person edition of the EPH Conference since 2019, collecting more than 700 books, policy briefs, country profiles and other publications produced by the Observatory.
“Strengthening health systems: Improving population health and being prepared for the unexpected” was the theme of this year’s conference, which was co-chaired by Reinhard Busse, Research Director of the Observatory’s Berlin Hub.
Below you can find key take-aways from sessions led or co-led by the Observatory, and related resources.
Assessing the performance of health systems to build better policies
- Health policy-making and reform require, first and foremost, a sound understanding of how a health system is performing.
- Increasing health system performance is critical in creating resilient health systems. If health policies are to foster the ability to withstand shocks like the pandemic, they need to focus on the right interventions – those that improve performance.
- Health system resilience has been on the agenda even before the pandemic. Assessing the performance of health systems helps to learn from the crisis and to be better prepared for future shocks.
- Related resources
Building resilient health systems in a post-pandemic world
- Together with the Observatory, WHO/Europe has described ten actions that countries can take to strengthen their health and care workforce to meet current and future health needs. These include improving working conditions, retaining health workers in remote areas, and protecting their health and mental health.
- Other key lessons from the pandemic include the need to not think in silos, to collaborate internationally, to watch out for inequalities, and to cope with new challenges including inflation and the energy crisis.
- Related resources
- Addressing backlogs and managing waiting lists during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (policy brief)
- Health and care workforce in Europe: time to act (report)
- Health systems resilience: Build Back Better with evidence from the Observatory (Multiple resources)
- BeWell – Blueprint Alliance for a Future Health Workforce Strategy on Digital and Green Skills
Using European Union tools and creating a true European Health Union
- The European Union is an important player in health policy and provides tools to improve health and care systems.
- Related resources:
Antimicrobial resistance, oral health, children’s health, and the health of refugees
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been high on the agenda for a long time, which can lead to dangerous fatigue.
- European Union action on AMR should go beyond Europe because this is a global threat that knows no borders.
- The framework developed by the Observatory on Health Systems Performance Assessment shows that child health indicators can be tracers for health systems performance.
- In Europe, 52% of the population suffer from oral diseases. Out-of-pocket expenditures are the largest source of revenue for dental care.
- People fleeing conflict need access to all needed health services without financial barriers, including medicines. Countries have to make additional funding available to ensure financial protection.
- Related resources:
- Antimicrobial resistance (Multiple resources)
Addressing inequities in financial protection in Europe
- Experts warn of the twin effects of the visible catastrophic spending and the invisible problem of patients being prevented from using useful services with long-term consequences.
- Countries should cover people’s health care costs, increase the services they have access to, and balance out-of-pocket payments as much as possible.
- Related resources
- Economics of Ageing series
- Challenges, progress, opportunities: European and Central Asian health systems: op-ed by Hans Kluge, Josep Figueras and Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat on the Health Systems in Action Insights series