Last 31 January 2020, UEHP held its General Assembly in Zurich (Switzerland), kindly hosted by the Swiss Private Clinics.

The day started with Dr. Beat Walti, President of the Swiss Private Clinics, who welcomed the delegates of the various national associations to Zurich and gave a brief overview of the Swiss health system and in particular of the Swiss private clinics.
After a welcome speech by the UEHP President, Dr Garassus, Mr. Froelicher presented the priorities and current actions of the Association of Swiss Private Hospitals & Clinics (SPH/PKS/CPS) which represent 141 private hospitals & clinics in acute care, rehabilitation and mental health.
The morning session continued with some presentation about past and future activities of UEHP, as well as important decisions for the structure of our organisation.

In the afternoon session, we had the pleasure to welcome four top international speakers who gave their speeches on four different topics of interest for all UEHP members:

• Prof. Walter Ricciardi, Chair of the EU Cancer Mission Board, presenting the Horizon Europe missions, focusing on the Cancer Mission.
• Prof. Carlo Signorelli, Full Professor of Hygiene and Public health, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele – Milan, Italy and Director of the School of Public health (Igiene e medicina preventiva), presenting the evaluation of healthcare performance in public and private hospital in Italy.
• Ms Belén Vicente, CEO at Advanced Health Education, presenting the “Advanced Health Education”, the first Graduate School dedicated to all Health Professionals.
• Dr. Willy Oggier, Advisor in health economics in Switzerland, presenting the current situation of the Swiss health system in Switzerland and the role and potential roles of private clinics.

The programme ended with a visit to one of the most prestigious private clinic in Zurich, the Bethanien Klinik.

The next UEHP Council Meeting will take place on 26 June 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, kindly hosted by our Portuguese member Associação Portuguesa de Hospitalização Privada (APHP).

UEHP retains its seat in the eHealth Stakeholder Group of the European Commission for its third consecutive mandate! 

The European Commission has just published the names of the new member organisations of the renewed eHealth Stakeholder Group with a mandate until 2022.

The call for applications  closed in September 2019 and the Commission received over 100 applications for a maximum of 40 membership places. In selecting organisations, the Commission took into account not only the eligibility and selection criteria, but also the need for a balanced representation of the different interests needed to support the breadth of digital health over the next three years.

Members are all umbrella organisations/associations with a European outreach, representing the following sectors/groups: the Health Tech industry, patients, healthcare professionals and the research community. The names of selected organisations are published in the Register of Commission Expert Groups.

As part of the EU's commitment to engage stakeholders in public policy making, the eHealth Stakeholder Group will provide advice and expertise, that will support the Commission to develop policy and implement the Communication  on enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market, that was adopted in April 2018. In particular in relation to the following areas:

• Health Data, including taking forward the Commission Recommendation on a European Electronic Health record exchange format and the further elaboration of the baseline set of technical specifications and better interoperability
• Digital health services
• Health data protection and privacy issues
• Cybersecurity for health and care data
• Digital tools for citizen empowerment and person centred care
• Artificial intelligence and health
• Other cross cutting aspects linked to the digital transformation of health and care, such as financing and investment proposals and enabling technologies

UEHP has been member of this group since 2015 and will continue working closely with the European Commission, as well as with the other stakeholders working in the healthcare sector, to bring the voice of private hospitals in Europe in the transition towards digitalisation of care across Europe.

Following the publication of the Country Health Profiles  and Companion Report by the European Commission, the aim of the event was to explore how the State of Health in the EU can be implemented at national and regional level to address current health systems challenges and show the way towards outcomes-based healthcare in Europe.

Keynote speakers included Sylvain Giraud, Head of the Unit on Performance of National Health Systems (DG SANTE), Josep Figueras, Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Michael van den Berg, from the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development.
These keynote speeches were complemented by two panel discussions - composed of representatives of the EU Health Coalition, including patients, healthcare professionals, industry and hospitals representatives, regional and local health authorities - both discussing how to put these results into practice on a larger scale, the barriers to implementation and how national and EU policy makers could help further this agenda in order to improve patient care while making healthcare systems more sustainable.
Our UEHP Secretary General, Ms Ilaria Giannico, participated as panellist in the roundtable on concrete case studies and practical implementation, whose aim was to get away from the theoretical and to talk about practical examples and case studies to show what a difference value-based healthcare can make. Ms Giannico had the chance to bring the voice of the private hospitals in Europe on the topic of Value-Based Healthcare, with a focus on the advantages that outcomes-based health care can bring, the definition of value, the main challenges to implementing value-based healthcare, the role the EU should play in developing a value-based agenda and the collaboration can happen between member states, with some concrete exemples of how private hospitals in Europe are already implementing projects on VBHC.

Do you implement innovative actions that support patients, health professionals and contribute to the future of our planet? Do you have a hospital project in the following categories?

• Best Prevention initiative
• Best patient-focused initiative
• Model of clinical innovation
• Most advanced hospital in Value-based Health Care
• Greenest hospital in Europe
• Most original initiative

Then, be sure to participate to the 1st edition of the European Private Hospital Awards 2020 organized by UEHP and APHP and let your project be known!

The call for projects will open soon: Monday 9 March, get ready!

Last 4 February 2020, on the occasion of the World Cancer Day, UEHP attended the “Conference - Europe's Beating Cancer Plan: Let's strive for more”, organised at the European Parliament in Brussels by the European Commission to officially launch an EU-wide public consultation on Europe's Beating Cancer Plan.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, and Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, participated in the Conference and gave their speeches on the importance to raise awareness about the fight against cancer, the role of the EU and the efforts that still need to be made.

The context - Every year, 3.5 million persons are diagnosed with cancer in the European Union. A new case of cancer is diagnosed in the EU every 9 seconds. It is the second leading cause of mortality after cardiovascular disease and it places a massive burden on our health and social systems, puts pressure on governmental budgets and negatively impacts the productivity and growth of the economy, including a healthy workforce.

Tackling cancer is of fundamental importance for Europe’s future. By 2035, there will be a doubling of cancer cases and an estimated 40% of the population will face cancer at some point in their lives. However, at the same time 40% of all cancers can be prevented if we implement what we know already. With these numbers in mind and the different approaches from Member States, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has tasked Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, with the launch of an ambitious cancer plan.

Europe’s Cancer Plan will be presented before the end of this year and it will propose actions at every key stage of the disease: prevention (lifestyle, pollution, vaccination), diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. In particular:

Next steps - The aim of the public consultation is to allow EU citizens and stakeholders to contribute and voice their opinion on the best ways to address this issue in the EU.The results of the consultation will feed into the outline of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan and help identify the areas and the scope of future action.

Until July, specific elements of the Plan will be discussed with Member States as well as targeted consultations with stakeholders.

ENISA re-launches the eHealth Security Experts Group and invites IT healthcare professionals with focus on cybersecurity from healthcare related organisations to join us.

ENISA has been dealing with Critical Information Infrastructures Protection since 2009 and introduced eHealth as a topic in 2015. ENISA's role is to assist, support and advice the Member States on Network and Information Security matters. This is done through studies, that result into specific recommendations and sharing of good practices; event and knowledge sessions, that raise awareness and build cybersecurity capacity; and communities of experts to take up this knowledge and information.

To this purpose we are in the process of creating an experts' group on eHealth security, that will consist of IT professionals for the Healthcare sector from Member States (MS) and EFTA countries. Their role will be to review ENISA position paper and validate information, to participate (presentations, panels etc.) in workshops or other related events regarding eHealth systems security, and to directly discuss between each other the approaches other MS are taking towards protecting eHealth information and systems.

On behalf of ENISA, we would like to invite you to become a member of ENISA's eHealth security experts group which will be formed in the coming weeks.

For more information on the experts group activities please visit this page.

For registration, fill in this form.

The first evaluation will take place at the end of March. We will inform you for further details after your registration. If you have further inquiries please contact us at: eHealthSecurity@enisa.europa.eu.

The European Commission published its 4th progress report on the implementation of the European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance, which was adopted in June 2017. Substantial progress has been made, including meetings of the AMR One Health Network and of the Health Security Committee to enhance cooperation and coordination on AMR and One Health visits to Member States to support the implementation of national One Health action plans. Other milestones include the publication of two overview reports respectively on measures to tackle AMR through the prudent use of antimicrobials in animals and on a series of audits carried out in 2017 and 2018 in order to evaluate the monitoring and reporting of AMR in zoonotic and commensal bacteria in certain food-producing animal populations and food. The next progress report is planned to be published by the end of 2020.

On 18 March 2020, the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) in collaboration with the European Union of Private Hospitals (UEHP) and the European Health Management Association (EHMA), will organise a roundtable debate on the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) implementation in Europe, entitled “Patient safety and the implementation of the Falsified Medicines Directive in the hospital environment – one year on”.

One year after the entry into force of the FMD safety features, the roundtable will address the progress that is being made within the hospital setting of the implementation of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive. The roundtable is designed to not only provide a comprehensive progress report on its status but also to provide practical and hands-on experience of hospitals which have now implemented this important patient safety initiative. Thus, it will establish a wider knowledge based for the successful sharing of best practices by bringing together a team of experts to offer their advice and expertise.

The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines, formed in 2007, is an independent, pan-European initiative dedicated to protecting patient safety by ensuring access to safe and legitimate medicines.

Guarantee your place now! A limited number of seats is available.

For more information please get in contact with laura.cigolot@eaasm.eu