EU Conference 2008

Ready for the future - Defining European healthcare through innovation and quality

Kranjska Gora, Slovenia June 5/6 2008

The 'Ready for the Future' conference was held during the Presidency of the Council of the EU by the Republic of Slovenia. The event was organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia and the European Society for Quality in Healthcare.

The main topics covered at the conference were as follows:

1. Education in the field of quality in healthcare;
2. Organisational frameworks for quality in healthcare;
3. Healthcare standards, particularly the use of external evaluation.

A cross-cutting theme of all three topics covered was to promote participation of citizens/patients.




The conference pursued the themes identified at the beginning of the Presidency of the Council of the EU by the Republic of Slovenia, concentrating on the issues of supporting learning, innovation and aspects of the quality framework including better access to healthcare. The structure of the conference also recognised the importance of active participation of civil society and NGO’s that defend the interests of patients in the decision-making processes.

Aware of the growing importance of cross-border care, the event highlighted the initiative of continuing the evolving process of sharing information between EU countries on quality activities in health care.
The conference was attended by representatives of 19 European countries including 11 Ministries of Health. Also represented were DG-SANCO and WHO-Europe as well as international NGO's such as HOPE and EPF, other institutes, hospital managers, teaching institutions, insurance companies and quality experts. Just over half the attendees where from Slovenia.

Presentations

Click on the title of the presentation to download:

Andrej Robida/David Somekh
Welcome by chairs of the conference

Director general, Directorate of Health Care prim.Janez Remškar, MD
National Policy for the Development of Quality in Healthcare

Public Health DG SANCO Katarina Neubauer
EU activities on patient safety and quality of care

WHO Europe Dr Valentina Hafner
WHO Europe Guidance on developing quality and safety strategies in healthcare

ESQH President, Basia Kutryba
The role of Healthcare NGOs in supporting quality and innovation

Bastian Urban ARBUMA group and Roland Schlesinger IQMS, Vienna
Industry and Healthcare working together

Dr Frederik Froen (Norwegian Institute for Public Health)
Education in Quality for Healthcare Professionals (1)

Prof. Rene Amalberti (HAS, France)
Evaluation of Healthcare Systems

Margaret Murphy (WHO Alliance for Patient Safety)
Patient participation as a stimulus for innovative change

Dr Metka Terzan (Quality Dept., MoH, Slovenia)
Perspective of Ministry of Health Of the Republic of Slovenia on quality framework

Merlijn van Rijswijk (Innovation Platform, NL)
The approach to innovation in healthcare in the Netherlands

Jane Alop (Estonian National Health Fund)
Factors influencing change in the younger EU partners

Joanne Harkness (International Alliance of Patients' Organisations)
How patient organisations can contribute to better healthcare quality

Dr A. Robida (Ministry of Health, Slovenia)
Health professions education in Slovenia. A new challenge to overcome a quality gap

Frederik Froen (Norwegian Institue for Public health)
Education for healthcare professionals (2)

Karen Pukk, (Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
Education in Quality Improvement in Sweden-preparing future health care professionals

Simon Knighton, EPP (UK)
Patients helping professionals improve their training

Samo Fakin (Slovenian Health Fund)
A perspective from the local health insurance fund

Paula Vallejo (FAD, Spain)
MARQuIS Project: use of external assessment of hospitals

Prof. Rene Amalberti (HAS, France)
(coming soon) Improving patient safety through External auditing

Anne-Laure Donskoy (UFM, Bristol,UK)
User Focused Monitoring Service users at the heart of service evaluation

David Somekh, Marius Buiting and Benno van Beek (ESQH)
Presentation of summary of discussions and recommendations for the future