The European Commission is indeed working on post-Covid-19, as requested by several European leaders in a joint letter dated Tuesday 9 June. According to several documents, the institution is planning reports on the evaluation of health systems performance, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their resilience, and investments in health.
In a joint letter accompanied by a guidance document, several Heads of State or Government (France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Spain and Denmark) deplore Europe's lack of preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic. "Understanding the shortcomings is essential", say the co-signers.
Several reports in preparation
But Europe is made up of its Member States and the desire to do better in the future is shared by the European Commission, which posts several documents to this effect on its website.
"We need to use this opportunity to transform health systems to make them stronger and less vulnerable to similar shocks and structural changes in the future", notes, for example, a 10 June paper calling for expert panel advice on effective ways of investing in health.
The document makes the same observation as the co-signers: "If there was a perception that health systems finally 'resisted', it was not because they had adequate capacity to absorb the surge in demand for care", the paper says. It therefore asks the expert panel about the basic elements for improving the organisation of care, the elements and conditions for capacity building in primary, outpatient and hospital care and social care, maintaining care in times of crisis for vulnerable patients, and criteria for testing the resilience of health systems.
It also announces the publication, "in the coming weeks", of a report on assessment tools and methods by the EU expert group on health systems performance assessment (HSPA) as well as the publication of a report on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the resilience of health systems, jointly prepared by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by the end of the year. This report, notes the 10 June paper (see document: https://bit.ly/37gRnJL ), will provide recommendations based on the lessons to be learned from the crisis.
In the short term, monitor Covid-19
However, Commission spokesman Eric Mamer reminded the press that a large number of actions had already been taken in response to the leaders' letters, in particular in the context of the "Next Generation EU" recovery plan.
In addition to a vaccination strategy (see separate article), Europe is preparing a framework for Covid-19 surveillance. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is currently in the consultation phase, as reflected in a report of the Health Security Committee (HSC) meeting of 3 June, published on 9 June (see minutes: https://bit.ly/3fd6IgW ).
It states that the future framework will involve the EU, the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) in order "to assist Member States in establishing robust surveillance systems at national level to assess the epidemiological situation, monitor the effectiveness of existing interventions and identify gaps".
According to the report, the main pillars of the framework are: - national coordination; - planning and monitoring of risk communication and community engagement; - surveillance, rapid response teams and case investigations; - vaccine surveillance; - national laboratories (and testing capabilities); - infection prevention and control; - case management; - maintenance of essential health services and systems. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)