October 2014
In October patients were well represented at the 17th Conference of the European Health Forum Gastein. We also closed our series of four regional conferences on Cross-Border Healthcare with an event in Estonia.
Strong Patient representation in Gastein
The European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) was held in October in Austria. Many patients’ representatives were present at this important European health policy event, and not only in the ‘patient-focused’ sessions.
We took this chance to reiterate some important messages, specifically on patient empowerment with health literacy as a key tenet, patients’ access to quality healthcare and patients’ involvement in research and decision-making.
This 17th EHFGconference was themed “Electing health – The Europe we want!” reflecting May’s European Parliament election. We took this opportunity to mention our campaign for the 2014 EU Elections.
Our Policy Officer Laurène Souchet shared her experience on our blog of being the first patient representative in the Young Gasteiner programme.
The full and detailed report of the Gastein event is available here and our article is available here (PDF).
A European tour on Cross-Border Healthcare
The last EPF Cross-Border Healthcare Regional Conference took place in Estonia in October. This event was the final one in a series of four on this topic. We organised them in collaboration with the European Commission to contribute to the implementation of the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive.
Patient leaders from 20 European countries now better understand the details of this legislation and its transposition at national level.
EPF will continue on this path in 2015 with national workshops organised in the eight remaining countries (Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Spain, and Portugal).
The European Commission will assess the implementation of the Directive in Member States in 2015 and we will ensure that grassroots patients’ experiences inform it.
More information: http://www.eu-patient.eu/whatwedo/Policy/Patients-Mobility/