China, the world’s largest consumer of human and animal antibiotics, has pledged to step up research and development into new antimicrobials and to rein in overuse of existing medicines to counter growing global antimicrobial resistance. As part of a national action plan unveiled on 26 August, the Chinese central government said that it would mobilize […]
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WHO’s health policy for Europe, ‘Health 2020‘, aims to improve health and well-being, reduce health inequities and ensure universal health coverage. The evidence-based and peer-reviewed policy has been embraced by all 53 Member States in the WHO European Region and is vital as Europe is faced with many different challenges that impact our health and
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The European Region is the first in the world to have interrupted indigenous malaria transmission with the number of cases dropping from 90,712 in 1995 to zero in 2015. Countries in the WHO European Region at risk of malaria reintroduction (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) have reaffirmed their commitment
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The online database ‘OECD health statistics 2016‘ has been released and offers the most comprehensive source of comparable statistics on health and health systems across OECD countries. It is an essential tool to carry out comparative analyses and draw lessons from international comparisons of diverse health systems. It includes data on biotechnology, cancer, health care,
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The Dutch health system has been undergoing transformational reform since the mid-2000s. The 2006 reform introduced managed competition as a driving mechanism in health care. Ten years of gradual implementation have changed and continue to change the health care system and the role of stakeholders. A second major reform in long term care (2015) aimed
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The expert group on health systems performance assessment (HSPA) provides participating countries with a forum to exchange experiences on the use of HSPA at a national level. It also supports national policy-makers by identifying tools and methodologies for developing HSPA. It is composed of European countries’ health authorities as well as international organisations and has
Assessing quality of care Read More »
Global consumption of antibiotics in human medicine rose by nearly 40{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} in the decade from 2000 and in 2007 25,000 people a year in the EU were dying from an infection due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Infections due to these multi-drug resistant bacteria are estimated to cost the EU at least €1.5 billion a year in
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A new initiative for 2016-17 ‘ State of Health in the EU‘ will bring together internationally recognised expertise to provide Member States with evidence on health that is relevant to their specific country and that can help maximise the effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of their health systems. There are four components to this initiative: November
Most health systems face fiscal constraints and Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI) is often seen as a way to address these pressures. This study by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies draws on the experiences of 34 countries to assess VHI’s contribution to health spending and to understand its role in Europe and in
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In the WHO European Region, nurses and midwives – an estimated total of 7.3 million – make up the majority of health care professionals, delivering health services to people of all ages. A recently published compendium of good practices in nursing and midwifery illustrates the fundamental importance of these health care professionals to public health
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