The Health Policy Forum met on 11th March 2005 to debate several issues.
Commissioner Kyprianou opened the meeting with relections on his health mandate.
He stated that although communicable diseases had ben a success story for health, old scourges such as TB are re-emerging and HIV remains a core problem for Europe. He highlighted his priorities as being mental health (a Green paper is due in June 2005 to be followed by a Communication by the end of 2006). Tobacco policy will focus on workplace exposure and the risks from passive smoking. A Green paper on smoke free environments will be published in 2006 which will involve an exchange of views with Member States and the use of voluntary measures. The health of young people needs to be addressed through looking at determinants such as drugs, alcohol, injuries, HIV, obesity and nutrition. The EU will organised a number of high level events and communication initatives.
He talked about a new European Health Survey that will be published and the recent EU activities on nutrition and obesity which have resulted in the launch of a new Platform for action. The new European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) will monitor and respond to threats, whether natural, man-made, agricultural or terrorism. It will coordinate input to the WHO’s International Health Regulation (IHR) and is working in partnership with the pharmaceuticals industry for preparations for pandemic flu.
The challenge of an ageing population in Europe must be met by improving standards of health promotion and healthcare delivery.
In response to questions from the EHPF members:
Lisbon agenda and REACH Chemicals legislation – better regulation must mean healthy regulations. Simpler procedures, a smaller administrative burden but maintaining health protection. Health is a long-term investment and competitiveness must not come at the price of human health. If stronger action had been taken 20 years ago there would not be so many chemicals on the market that need to be regulated for safety.
Information on medicines – in his view it is time to review the position because the EU needs to adjust to the new reality. Patients are better informed, know their rights and want information and industry represents one of the sources of inforamtion. He stated that he is not planning to allow advertising such as on TV and magazines but using the internet is a possibility. The current system is a disadvantage for non English language speakers and there is no control over what is publicised. He reiterated the importance of information on medicines being understandable, the G10 process used the term “readable”. This would mean accurate, verified and not misleading. He has written to DG Enterprise on how to implement the G10 recommendations and he expects DG SANCO to play an active role. However he stated that Member States would be resistant because patients would know about ‘better medicines’ and would therefore ask for them and this would have a cost implication for governments.
Draft Directive on Services – Kyprianou stated that he was not happy with the idea that healthcare services might be excluded from the scope of the Servics Directive. He felt that is based on a misunderstanding by Member States. It would mean that all of the positive results of the patient mobility process would be lost. Yes, adjustments are needed on the Country of Origin principle, but without the Services Directive, ECJ judgements and internal market rules just add complications for health. It had become clear to the Commission that health is blocking the Directive and there is a choice to remove it or kill the Directive. The Commission is now trying to salvage what it can from the Directive and see what elements could remain. For example, clarification on reimbursements of patients. Kyprianou stated that all Member States come to the EU for guidance of issues of patient and professional mobility and the High Level Group on Healthcare Services has shown that bilateral agreements do not work.
He called for youth organisations to work on de-glamourising unhealthy lifestyles and making it ‘cool’ to be healthy.
Mr Robert Madelin, Director General of DG Sanco, gave an overview about recent developments in EU Health Policy. The Commission has proposed a much larger allocation for the new Health and Consumers programme within the debate about the future EU budget (Financial perspectives 2007-2013). But the debate now moves to the Council (Member States) and to the Parliament. He stressed the need for active lobbying by health organisations to support the higher budget allocation.
Currently there is a strong call for the EU budget heading 3 (which includes health) to focus on security issues, border policies, visa and policing cooperation. Health structures must make their voices heard in order not to lose out.
The draft Health and Consumers programme is in inter-service consultation and will be adopted by the Commission on 6 April. This will set out the baselines for lobbying at national and EU level – particularly of finance departments.
Madelin stated that the unified health and consumers programme would increase administrative efficiency and bring about economies of scale. Calls for proposals are very costly and time-consuming for the Commission to administer. By combining the two programmes this will reduce the burdern on scarce Commission resources.
Mr Merkel (Health Directorate) and Ms Arnault (Consumers Directorate) explained the new programme, which will merge the Public Health Programme and the Consumers Programme. This should be a more efficient way of spending the budget, supervised by the new Executive Agency. You can find their presentation below.
As support to two documents distributed (see link below) Nick Fahy, from DG Sanco, gave an update on the work of the High level group on health services and medical care. Mr Bladh from DG Employment updated the members of the Forum on the Open Method of Coordination in healthcare and longterm care.
The EHPF also discussed the two papers drafted by the working groups.
– Health Information
– Health services
Members of the EHPF have 4 weeks to comment on the papers (11 April 2005). Then the working groups will have one week to put a final version together (18 April), and both papers should be ready for approval. The members of the Forum will then have two weeks to opt-in. On the 2 May the document will be published with the list of supporting EHPF members.
At the end of the meeting, there was a brief discussion about the operation and membership of the EHPF. The Commission is proposing extending membership from the current 45 organisations to approximately 60 organisations. The last meeting of the EHPF agreed that members that didn’t attend for 2 meetings would lose their automatic right to a seat. The Commission said that there were up to 20 organisations that had requested to join EHPF and details on these structures would be disseminated.
The Commission would like to see the EHPF producing more documents and greater input into policy but recognised that there is a lack of resources. In addition, not all EHPF members participate with the same intensity in the discussions and contribute to the working groups.
On 7-8 November 2005, the Commission will held the next Open Forum.
The next meeting of the EHPF will be on 14 October 2005.