On 1 January 2022, for the first time in 14 years, France has taken over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for a period of six months (1 January to 30 June 2022).

The Presidency of the Council organizes meetings, brokers compromises, submits conclusions and ensures the coherency and continuity of the decision-making process. It ensures good cooperation between all Member States and acts as a liaison between the Council and the European institutions, in particular the Commission and European Parliament. The French Presidency will focus on three emblematic and concrete priorities:

The French Presidency will help prepare the Europe of tomorrow, laying the groundwork for far-reaching changes:

The French residency also seeks to meet citizens' expectations: proposed by France in 2019 and launched on 9 May 2021 in Strasbourg by the President of the Republic, alongside the President of the European Parliament, President of the Council and President of the European Commission, the Conference on the Future of Europe provides European citizens with a new forum for debate so that they can contribute to defining Europe’s future policy for the years and decades to come. Citizens can express their wishes and expectations on the futureu.europa.eu platform, in transnational panels and at numerous events organized in the Member States. In France, the government has put in place two mechanisms. Eighteen conferences with participating citizens chosen at random have been held in all French mainland and overseas regions, and broad online consultation has been conducted with 50,000 young French people. Recommendations made by citizens, in France and in Europe, have helped determine the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The work of the Conference on the Future of Europe will conclude in spring 2022, under the French Presidency. 

More at: French Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2022 (europa.eu)

14 Vice Presidents:

5 Quaestors:

The 14 Vice-Presidents and five Quaestors, together with the President, comprise Parliament’s Bureau. The Bureau lays down rules for Parliament’s smooth functioning. Among its other duties, it draws up Parliament’s preliminary draft budget and decides on administrative, staff and organisational matters.

In addition to their roles in the Bureau, Vice-Presidents can replace the President including in chairing plenary debates and in representing the Parliament at specific ceremonies or acts, when necessary. Quaestors deal with administrative matters directly affecting MEPs themselves, and they are members of the Bureau in an advisory capacity.

In electing the members of the Bureau, political groups aim to ensure that the  Vice-Presidents and Quaestors broadly reflect the numerical strength of the groups and take into account the voting results of the President's election.

More here.

This European initiative which will bring together a broad range of stakeholders, such as health authorities, healthcare providers, and relevant social partners, aims to showcase what private hospitals do best and support innovative European projects in various categories such as:

Best Prevention initiative
Best patient-focused initiative
Green Hospitals
Model of clinical innovation
Most advanced hospital in Value-Based Health Care
Workplace excellence
News coverage of the year

On the 3rd of January, the call for applications was launched and participants were invited to submit their projects until March 31, 2022.

The evaluation process, carried out by an independent international jury, will take place in April and May 2022 and the award ceremony will be held on the 23rd of June 2022, in Lisbon.

The European Private Hospital Awards will be an opportunity to disseminate good practices and projects which have an impact on the lives of citizens and the healthcare sector.

If you have a project in the listed categories, then be sure to let your project be known and participate!

For more information, please contact:

Ivone Werner | executiveassistant@uehp.eu | +351 937750674

In 2022, the EU4Health will continue to invest in building stronger, more resilient health systems and pave the way for the European Health Union.

With a budget of over €835 million, the new work programme will provide an unparalleled level of EU investment in health and ensure ambitious and decisive action in four focus areas: crisis preparedness, disease prevention, health systems and healthcare workforce, and digitalisation.

The EU4Health Programme supports building a European Health Union including the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, and the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, and the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority ('HERA').

The programme will provide funding to eligible entities from Member States, associated third countries, international organisations, NGOs and the private sector in the form of grants or procurement of specific services. NGOs will be able to apply through an open call for operating grants, as well as for action grants on various topics. The European Commission and the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) will manage the programme.

More information:
2022 annual work programme

The week 25-28 January our President and Secretary General were in Dubai to attend the Arab Health Exhibition 2020, the leading medical equipment exhibition in the Middle East.

Presenting an exceeding range of healthcare products and services showcased by more than 3,500 exhibitors from across the world, Arab Health 2022 brought together more than 56,000 healthcare professionals eager to learn, network and trade.

Arab Health Exhibition 2022 was the opportunity for the global healthcare community to gather to connect and explore the latest health innovation.

Our President and Secretary General also had the chance to attend a number of sessions on healthcare services and medical tourism across the world organised in the various pavilions of Expo 2020 Dubai. 

More at: Arab Health 2022 | Global Healthcare Event - Dubai January 24-27 (arabhealthonline.com)

Last 30 November, the European Alliance for Value in Health celebrated its first year anniversary!

2021 has been a pivotal year for health policy in Europe, and the first year for the European Alliance for Value in Health.

A year ago, 11 associations (of which UEHP) launched the European Alliance for Value in Health, with a joint vision of a Europe where health systems are value-based, sustainable, and people-centred. The Alliance went on a mission to partner across sectors to facilitate health system transformation, by disseminating knowledge and best practices, and engaging with policy makers and stakeholders – at European, national, and regional levels.

In the first year EAVH managed to grow the Alliance to 12 partner associations representing patients, scientific and professional societies, healthcare managers, hospitals, regional health authorities and life-science industries, and also extend its network with 5 affiliated organisations, providing specific expert views to the Alliance (of which our Associate member Relyens).

Early March 2021 EAVH organised a first networking event, bringing together our partner associations and almost 50 member organisations. The aim was to connect attendees and inspire them to further collaborate on the topic of value in health. It was great to see how different healthcare stakeholders found so much common ground in working towards value-based health systems. The 6 key principles of the Alliance were seen as fundamental to the transformation, with 2 of them seen as particularly important by participants:

In the meantime, health system resilience was becoming a key topic for policy makers in Europe with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic becoming ever more clear. In the view of the Alliance, the issue of health system resilience would need to be put in a broader context of both immediate and long-term challenges for health systems, where a value-based and person-centred approach are central parts of the solution. For this reason EAVH wrote our policy paper ‘Health systems after COVID-19 – Building resilience through a value-based approach’, to demonstrate how the key principles championed by the Alliance can strengthen health system resilience both in emergencies and in times of normalcy.

Building on the policy paper, our public event ‘Lessons from the crisis: how a value-based approach can make health systems more resilient’ brought together a large audience and 10 highly qualified speakers across stakeholders to discuss the topic of health system resilience and the vision of the Alliance. Speakers agreed that a coherent set of policy changes is needed at all levels: Europe, national and regional. The event concluded with an important takeaway: the real danger is a return to the status quo, not the emergence of a new pandemic – we have a unique opportunity to reform and improve healthcare in Europe through a holistic system approach which we cannot afford to miss.

The Alliance will pick up the challenge towards 2022 and 2023 to deliver tangible materials focused on these enablers:

EAVH to take the next concrete step in facilitating the transition towards value-based, sustainable and people-centred health system in Europe. 

Here you can find the video message of our Secretary General, Ms Giannico, on behalf of UEHP supporting EAVH and celebrating its first year anniversary.

The Call for Abstracts for the 45th IHF World Hospital Congress is already open. The Dubai Health Authority is hosting the Congress this year on 9-11 November at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre (DWTC) with the overarching theme “Global Learnings, Local Actions: Sustainable Healthcare”.

The Congress will once again bring together IHF members and other hospital, health service, and healthcare organization leaders and executives for multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge, good practices, new ideas and innovations, and networking with peers from across the international healthcare community.

The Call for Abstracts is for short oral and poster presentations and open to everyone. It’s a great opportunity for your members and other colleagues to showcase their work on a global stage. Abstracts may be submitted for the following sub-themes:

Deadline for oral presentation abstracts is on 28th February and poster presentation abstracts is on 11th March. More information is available at here.

IHF would appreciate it if you could share this with your members and wider network. They prepared a marketing package with several materials you can use including newsletter article, flyer, social media posts, images, and email templates. They can be downloaded from Dropbox here.

If you need any specific materials or have questions, don’t hesitate to contact the IHF team at congress@ihf-fih.org. 

Private hospital groups began to form as early as the 1980s, as the government decided that the private sector could help develop the healthcare infrastructure. In 2014, the government introduced universal healthcare coverage (UHC), which allows people who could not previously afford to access care to do so. As of BPJS report 2019, the UHC affiliation consists of 224 million people (84% of total population), including 96 million people living in poverty.

The improvement of health services concerns both the public and private sectors, they are both subject to the same quality and patient safety rules throughout the country, according to standardized criteria. The government selects the hospitals that can accommodate the UHC patients and these hospitals have to meet many requirements: accreditation, compliance with procedures, annual evaluation, quality monitoring and audits. Public hospitals have additional objectives such as training doctors, research, etc.

As a result, the gap in healthcare provision between the private and public sectors has narrowed considerably. The UHC has really helped to improve Indonesia's healthcare infrastructure, the supply of care and the overall quality.

Many of the private hospitals are currently accredited by the Ministry of Health and receive UHC patients. Some private hospitals only admit private patients, some admit both private and UHC patients, and some only focus on UHC patients. The Primaya Hospital Group has supported the government program from the beginning. It has chosen a case mix and accepts all patients (UHC and private). Having a large patient base allows us to increase our skills: organizational and professional with well-trained doctors and nursing staff.

As UHC tariffs have not been adjusted since 2016, having patients with private and company insurance also allows us to keep a balance. Private hospitals have no other source of financing than care, which leads us to innovate and invest constantly to stay in the race, to offer new technologies, treatments, and quality services.

The development of the private sector is still in full expansion at the moment and for the years to come, if policies and the situation remain conducive. The Primaya Hospital Group with 14 hospitals has opened five new hospitals in 2021 (in 2020: 3) and is planning to build 2-3 more in 2022.

We hope to be able to develop all the necessary human resources, specialists, doctors, nurses, to support the infrastructure we need. Our country has much potential, especially in human resources. The competition in the hospital industry has increased and will continue to increase going forward, but it is also what pushes us to continue to be better, and as we grow, we are becoming more attractive for investors, patients, and job seekers. We are going to open our own nursing school soon.

Beyond infrastructure, the development of the healthcare sector will require a lot of cooperation between public and private sectors and we already have successful public/private partnerships in Indonesia, as evidenced by the success of the UHC program.

We are accredited by the international quality label JCI (Joint Commission International), and we would be very happy to exchange and collaborate with private health establishments in Europe on good practices (optimization of the use of equipment, organization, etc.), but also on innovation in health (digital technology, telemedicine).

https://primayahospital.com/en/