Brussels, 25/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - European health ministers meeting on 23 and 24 April in Horsens for an informal meeting decided to make the Health Security Committee the central platform for managing crises that arise with regard to medical devices, following the PIP breast implant scandal. The Committee may henceforth be called upon to provide a swift, concrete response in the event of a crisis of European scale.
Danish Health Minister Astrid Krag was delighted by the consensus reached, saying: “We can act swiftly and in a coordinated way if we face such problems again. It is important we act quickly to help patients who suffer as a result of errors. (…) We did not have sufficient EU frameworks to deal with them before”. The commissioner responsible for health and consumer policy, John Dalli, pointed out that the European Commission was currently preparing new legislation on medical devices. “But before that, we have to take a lot of actions and I am very pleased about the way the ministers have welcomed the suggestions we have made both to the Commission and the Danish Presidency regarding this”, he said. It would not, however, be simply a temporary solution pending stricter regulations governing producers of medical appliances. Manufacturers will have to provide the same guarantees as those required today for medicines, the Danish minister said.
Furthermore, the health ministers showed they were aware of the fact that it is necessary to improve the existing framework for innovation in the health sector if European countries want to overcome the crisis and the challenges raised by an ageing population, while maintaining successful health care systems. “We have seen how regulation can be a push factor for innovation and not a barrier for innovation”, Ms Lund said. The debate on giving patients greater empowerment showed that ministers also shared a common vision regarding the importance of giving patients that suffer from chronic illness the possibility to play an active role by taking part in the follow-up and treatment prescribed. The Danish minister asserted: “Patient empowerment has many dimensions. There is not only one way. We are faced with a new paradigm - a cultural change - that we have to work systematically to implement in national policies in coming years. Therefore I am very glad to see common understanding among my colleagues that patient empowerment is not a question of leaving patients alone. Not that it is an exercise in cutting expenditures. It is about getting the best quality of treatments for the resources we have”. (IL/transl.jl)