Brussels, 02/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Health Council adopted two series of conclusions on 1 December which put patients at the very heart of health policy.
The first relate to patient safety and quality of care, including the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance, which is growing in Europe. In its conclusions, the Council stresses the importance of patient safety, a key factor in winning citizens' confidence in the quality of the healthcare systems, and the need to finalise a framework for sustainable EU collaboration on patient safety by December 2016. For this, the Council calls on the member states to: - promote the education and training of healthcare staff on patient safety; - develop measures that allow just and blame-free reporting by health professionals or patients and support blame-free handling of errors and adverse events; - encourage the participation and empowerment of patients, families and their informal caregivers and promote patients' participation in decision-making in the healthcare process; - reinforce programmes and plans for infection prevention and control throughout the care and cure process; - and continue to devote special attention to antimicrobial resistance.
The second series of conclusions concerns innovation for the benefit of patients. This text deals with various points related to bringing new pharmaceutical products and medical devices to the market. It covers the supply of innovative medicines at prices that are affordable for patients and underlines the need to speed up the evaluation and authorisation of new medicines. The Council calls on the member states to increase the effective sharing of information on prices of and expenditure on medicinal products, and to have the working party on public health at senior level continue its discussions on the cost effective use of medicines. “We must cooperate to improve our systems, so that patients can have access to innovation, and to find a way to put pressure on prices”, said Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin (our translation). Ministers had previously discussed this issue at their informal meeting in Milan in September (see EUROPE 11161). (IL)