Although the focus of the conference was on the Chinese healthcare sector, the congress included various speakers and experts from around the world, such as the Apollo Hospital Group in India, Siemens Healthineers, IHF, the Portuguese Association of Hospital Managers, etc.

Programme highlights included plenaries discussing the future trends of Healthy China 2030, the impact of block-chain technology in healthcare and innovation projects in hospitals, the future of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Industry, Quality & lean management in hospitals, how to build trust toward healthcare pratictionners and China’s private medical market development opportunities.

The participants also had to chance to learn more about the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative – an effort by the Chinese government to recreate the Silk Road through infrastructure projects that connect Asia, Europe and Africa, and its impact on the development of healthcare.

The conference ended with a tour of the Wuxi n.2 People’s Hospital, a huge and modern public hospital built two years ago. The visit, conducted by a team of doctors and nurses, aimed at showing the participants the latest developments in treatments, outpatient/inpatient models, organisation and structure of the hospital wards, app for nurses for constant monitoring, etc.

All participants were amazed by the hugeness of the hospital site, as well as by its functioning.

With the motto “A Europe that protects”, Austria took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 July 2018.

The Austrian government will focus on the following areas during its presidency :

• security and the fight against illegal migration
• securing prosperity and competitiveness through digitalisation
• stability in the neighborhood. This one also includes the goal of supporting the continued efforts of the Western Balkan countries to move closer to the EU.

In addition, Austria will advocate strengthening the principle of subsidiarity: the EU should focus on big issues requiring a joint solution and take a step back when it comes to smaller matters where Member states (or regions) are in a better position to take decisions.

On healthcare and social protection, the Austrian programme focuses on four
main topics :

1/ Fair working conditions for everyone
New modes of work that arise due to digitalisation require a shared understanding and common rules within the Single Market to avoid distortion of competition.

2/ Mobility, health and safety at the workplace and accessibility
Based on the progress made under the Bulgarian Presidency, the Austrian Presidency will continue the negotiations on the revision of the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems.

3/ Health and consumer protection
Austria will continue the work started by the Bulgarian Presidency on the Regulation on Health Technology Assessment, with the aim of preparing a progress report.

4/ Women and gender equality
Two main goals are at the centre of the Austrian Presidency’s objectives. The first goal is to promote an open and futureoriented dialogue on gender equality. Second, to advance the strengthening and institutionalisation of the discourse on gender equality on the EU political agenda.

Today Austria will present its priorities to the European Parliament during the plenary session in Strasbourg.

If you want to know more, please visit the website of the Austrian Presidency:
https://www.eu2018.at/

Download the full the programme here (in DE and EN):
https://www.eu2018.at/agenda-priorities/programme.html

Find the news on our website:
http://www.uehp.eu/news/the-priorities-of-the-austrian-presidency-of-the-council-of-the-european-union

This budget imwill be distributed over three main areas: 

• open science,
• global challenges/industrial competitiveness,
• open innovation.

- ARCHITECTURE & GOUVERNANCE 
The structure described above shows the difference with the three main pillars of Horizon 2020, that is Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges.

- MISSIONS
A mission will consist of a portfolio of actions intended to achieve measurable goals within a set timeframe, with impact for science and technology, society and citizens that goes beyond individual actions. 
A mission will generate more impact, achieve better outreach, improve cross-sectoral and cross- disciplinary cooperation, encourage a systemic approach and align R&I instruments and EU agendas. Concrete missions will be co-designed with Member States, stakeholders and citizens during implementation (strategic planning).

- NEW APPROACH TO PARTNERSHIPS 
Partnerships with public or private sector partners can achieve certain Horizon Europe objectives more effectively than the Union alone. A new generation of objective-driven and more ambitious partnerships in support of agreed EU policy objectives are planned to be set. 

- FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS 
The most important novelty in this field is the introduction of a new type of action, that is the “Innovation and market deployment actions” to focus on innovation to market, company scale up, blended finance.

- SYNERGIES WITH OTHER PROGRAMMES 

Despite the increase in the total budget (Horizon Europe: €94,1 billion / Horizon 2020: €77 billion), the budget provisionally allocated to the “health” cluster under Pillar II is of €7,7 billion. This amount is not in line with the total budget increase and will evidently be not enough to effectively address the challenges associated with health research. Moreover, this budget confirms a decrease of funding for health over time and across Framework Programmes, as health was previously allocated 12 per cent under the 7th Framework Programme, 10 per cent under Horizon 2020 and now 8 per cent in the Horizon Europe proposal. 
UEHP joins the concern expressed by main stakeholders in Brussels stating that this downward trend must be reverted for the benefit of European research, and especially for our common patients. 

qualitätskliniken.de

Good day for quality data transparency in hospital. The 19 Helios rehabilitation clinics and the 3 Helios outpatient rehab centers have joined the quality rating platform qualitätskliniken.de, where patients can consult and benchmark data related to quality of medical treatment, patient safety, patient satisfaction, physicians satisfaction, ethics, etc. in hospitals. The plarform includes data of more than 450 private, private-non profit and public hospitals.

"We are convinced that quality measurements have to be made transparent if they are to have any effect," explains Professor Matthias Köhler, medical director of Helios Reha in the latest BDPK newsletter.

As regard to transparency in quality management, private hospital groups in Germany have taken the lead with the creation of two institutes: IQM and Qualitätskliniken.de-4QD, joined under an umbrella organization: the SIQ foundation for quality management (Stiftung Initiative Qualitätskliniken).

The Council of Ministers has adopted a proposed update on the law changing the law on the provision of health care services financed using public resources. The government decided that health care spending will be growing gradually, up to 6% of the GDP in 2024, or the year earlier than planned before. This solution fulfills one of the more important points of the agreement signed on February 8 by the Health Minister with intern doctors.

According to the draft, in 2018-2023, health care financing will represent the equivalent of the following, or more:

• 4.78% of the GDP in 2018 (4.67% at present)
• 4.86% of the GDP in 2019 (4.86%)
• 5.03% of the GDP in 2020 (5.03%)
• 5.30 of the GDP in 2021 (5.22%)
• 5.55 of the GDP in 2022 (5.41%)
• 5.80 of the GDP in 2023 (5.60%)

Junior doctors undergoing specialized training as part of their internships in fields which are non prioritized will receive a raise of PLN 600/month (EUR 150), while those in priority fields will get PLN 700/month (EUR 175). In order to receive greater basic salary, doctors will have to pledge to work a total of two years over the five-year period following the specialist training at a medical institution financed with public funding. Funds needed for the basic salary hikes will be given to institutions which employ the doctors based on a contract with the Ministry of Health.

New regulations allow for the elimination of the opt-out clause, which allows employees to work more than 48 hours a week in a given time period, upon their agreement.