Thought this recent announcement from the European University Hospital Alliance might be of interest. It came up in a WHO meeting on how primary care across the EU is transitioning to population health, and the parallel movement of university hospitals to support and drive change.
https://www.euhalliance.eu/2024/08/28/press-release-euha-issues-a-position-paper-and-declaration-on-rethinking-healthcare-systems/
10.09.2014
The European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) is pleased to announce the release of its new Position Paper, "Rethinking Healthcare Systems," along with an EUHA Declaration. These documents are the result of a series of meeting between the members of the EUHA Rethinking Healthcare Systems Advisory Board convened between March and May 2024. The paper and declaration emphasise the urgent need for EU-wide collaboration to transform healthcare systems, positioning university hospitals as proactive driving forces for change. This transformation is essential for building future-proof, resilient and sustainable healthcare systems across Europe.
Healthcare systems across Europe face significant challenges, including workforce shortages, rising care demands and costs, demographic shifts, and emerging threats like climate change and new epidemics. These issues compromise hospitals' ability to deliver timely, high-quality, and safe care. To safeguard public health and ensure the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems, EUHA urges for a comprehensive, multi-country and context-sensitive transformation of the healthcare system, that considers integration, prevention and innovation as cornerstones.
In its Position Paper "Rethinking Healthcare Systems" and Declaration, EUHA addresses the urgent need for healthcare reform across Europe. The paper outlines solutions, highlights the pivotal role of university hospitals in driving this reform, details the key characteristics of a reimagined healthcare system and proposes an action plan to create future-proof, resilient healthcare systems.
EUHA calls on the EU:
To increase funding for projects and research on health system redesign implementation. Future-proof healthcare systems will require more integration across primary, secondary, and tertiary care and between the health system and social and community care. They will also demand an increased focus on population health, healthy lifestyle and prevention of disease and social determinants of health. This in turn necessitates better citizen education, and responsibility and broad societal supporting measures.
To work towards less complicated EU regulatory frameworks that facilitate innovation in the specific setting of university hospitals. Future-proof healthcare systems will require innovation. In addition to improving the quality of care, innovation must include researching new financing and reimbursement models, new legislative models that provide the necessary incentives for a shift towards a more sustainable health system. University hospitals should also prepare for new roles in health security, offering expertise to address emerging threats.
To stimulate collaboration between healthcare providers at a European level with more active involvement from the EU. The extent and cross-border nature of the challenges necessitates collaboration at a European level and requires a more active involvement from the EU, complementing the efforts of individual Member States. Evaluating health services research is complicated due to the complexity and context-specific nature of health services. Using a network context across different countries will help to develop more efficient and robust evaluation designs. University hospitals should offer their expertise and cooperation at both the EU and national levels.
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Lloyd Michener, MD
Professor Emeritus, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, Duke School of Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Public Health Leadership, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
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