The “Patient Prescribe” Campaign: next steps
Just before summer EPF set European policy-makers and health stakeholders an ambitious challenge: to adopt a strategy on patient empowerment at EU-level. With our “Patients Prescribe” Campaign, we want to demonstrate that patients are active citizens who can, if supported, and according to their individual capabilities and situation, make a difference to the sustainability of health care systems.
What did you miss over summer?
The EPF Secretariat has developed some guidance tools on how to get engaged in the campaign. We can only make patient empowerment a reality if we work together within the patient community but vitally also with our partners and allies.
There is widespread acknowledgement that empowering patients is good for healthcare systems. It is increasingly recognised as bringing better health outcomes, better patients’ satisfaction and, crucially, better use of resources.
We therefore believe the time is absolutely right to make patient empowerment known and understood in every part of Europe.
What is next?
At the 18th European Health Forum Gastein, EPF will organise a lunch workshop called “Empowerment in practice” in collaboration with Sanofi. The session, that will take place on 1 October, will focus on how patient empowerment can be a vital element of high-quality, sustainable, equitable and cost-effective health systems.
For more information: http://www.ehfg.org/detailevent1.html?eid=129
The Campaign’s launch conference in May resulted in key steps towards formulating a powerful “Charter of Patient Empowerment” expressing a set of fundamental principles of patient empowerment in 10 points.
The work on the Charter will feed also into the drafting of a multi-stakeholder Roadmap to Patient Empowerment. This will provide the basis for concrete actions that European policy-makers and healthcare stakeholders should take.
These two major documents will be officially released in November at a European Parliament roundtable event. More information will follow in the next issue!
Contact: EPF Communications Assistant, Valentina Stylianou, valentina.stylianou@eu-patient.eu.