World Health Day 2020

This year World Health Day 2020 is centred on the theme of nurses and midwives. It shines a spotlight on their work, and it serves as a reminder of the critical role they play in healthcare. It is important to remember that nurses and other health workers are also at the forefront of the fight against the spread of COVID-19: if it were not for them, there would be no response.

EPF has over the years strengthened its partnership with organisations representing nurses and European level, such as the European Federation of Nurses(EFN) and the European Specialist Nurses Organisation (ESNO) to foster cooperation on patient-centred healthcare. EPF led the first ever EU-funded project to assess the perspective of the end-users of e-health services – patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists across the EU, and we regularly contribute to events and activities, including through the European Medicines Agency’s joint meetings of patients and health professionals’ organisations.

Therefore, EPF strongly backs the World Health Organization’s (WHO) call to ensure nurses gain the support they need and are strong enough in their work to ensure everyone gets the healthcare they need. Healthcare should be accessible in a timely way to every patient who needs it, not only to those who can pay and regardless of gender, age, employment and residence status.

As pan-European umbrella for disease-specific organisations and national patient coalitions, EPF’s priority is to strengthen and amplify its’ members’ messages, diverse yet unified, of support towards and appreciation of nurses. On this occasion we have asked our members to help us gather patient testimonies on the subject of nurses and midwives. These messages will be translated into visual content material for our World Health Day 2020 Social Media Campaign, to be shared via our key promotional channels on the day itself (7 April).

See what patients have said about nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals