EPF participates in WHO meeting on Large Scale Implementation of Health System Transformation
© WHO
Under the leadership of Hans Kluge, Director of the Division of Health Systems and Public Health in WHO Europe, a high level meeting took place in Madrid, Spain in December. Hosted by the Deusto Business School, this meeting convened a number of ‘health leaders’ from the political and academic arena.
The backdrop to this work is, of course, the extensive macro level reforms taking place within many health systems in Europe. The purpose of the meeting was to explore howto engineer the necessary changes that are needed, rather than discussing potential changes.
The meeting took place following the unanimous adoption of a resolution and working document at the Regional Committee for Europe 65th session in Vilnius in September on ‘Priorities for Health Systems Strengthening in the WHO European Region 2015-2020 – walking the talk on people-centeredness’.
The Pettigrew Framework on Receptive Context for Change was used as a basis to structure the discussion and particular emphasis was placed on the five key factors considered to be the most important in embedding transformational change in health systems: environmental pressure; quality and coherence of policy; key people leading change; supportive organisational culture and managerial-clinical relations.
The meeting identified the drivers and enablers for change, as well as the barriers and obstacles. Former Health Ministers and Chief Medical and Nursing Officers shared both inspiring and challenging experiences, and participants learned first-hand from the implementers of policy level reforms and from academics who have studied these developments.
EPF Secretary General, Nicola Bedlington was invited to represent EPF in Madrid, to bring the perspective of patients. She explored the role of patient empowerment as a concept and as a strategy to contribute to sustainable and quality health systems of the future, and also commented on the EU health policy context.
More information:
A meeting report will be available shortly. For more information about this meeting, please contact Dr Elke Jakubowski, eja@euro.who.int
For more information about EPF’s relationship with WHO Europe, please contact EPF Secretary General, Nicola Bedlington, nicola.bedlington@eu-patient.eu