April 2016 – EPF Prominent Player in Health-Related Policy Dossiers

2016 was no short of crucial policy topics for patients in Europe. Once again, EPF,  thanks to its broad representativeness, stood forth to voice patients’ interests and concerns.

The Brussels scene bubbled with important political dossiers this year and health or patients-related topics were no exception. Guided by the feedback from our members, the EPF policy team advanced patients’ interest in several key dossiers. Here is a short recap:

• Cross-Border Healthcare: After a series of regional and national workshops with local patient organisations, EPF published a report in Spring 2016 on the implementation of the Patients’ Rights in Cross-border Healthcare Directive. Gathering feedback from EPF members, the statement indicates a clear lack of information regarding the Directive, with results showing that 7 patients out of 10 feel they haven’t received the necessary information regarding this important legislation. Monitoring the implementation of the Directive has been a major focus of our work on cross-border healthcare and will continue to be in the future. EPF has been invited to many Commission-events in 2016 to present the results of this monitoring, and promoted a survey on patients’ experience during the Summer. Finally, we have published a user-friendly factsheet for dissemination.
• Pricing and Reimbursement: Such a core debate required the patient's perspective. In April 2016, we published a substantive and balanced preliminary statement on the Pricing and Reimbursement of Innovative Medicines, offering a helicopter view on: pricing models, transparency, patient-based definition of value of innovation, the involvement of patients in Health Technology Assessment, flexible life-cycle approaches and joint price negotiations.
• Clinical Trials: A long-standing priority for EPF, in 2016 we have published a position paper calling for patient-centred implementation of the new EU Clinical Trials Regulation. Focusing on informed consent and information to patients, the paper outlines our vision from a patient’s perspective.
• HTA: Ancillary to our participation in international projects on Health Technology Assessment, EPF played an active role in this policy field by taking part in many European events, and involved our members in various reflection processes, notably on the upcoming initiatives foreseen by the European Commission. Again, our main concern is to see patients meaningfully involved in the whole spectrum of HTA, utilising our unique experience.
• Patient Safety: Another pillar of our work at EPF, the safety of healthcare saw our Policy team engaging with our members on the many facets of patient safety, culminating in the publication of a briefing paper, a policy factsheet and the organisation of an international conference in November on “Patient and Family Empowerment for Better Patient Safety”.   

For more information, policy@eu-patient.eu