Ladies and Gentlemen,
The European Patients Forum has been empowering patients and striving to achieve equitable healthcare systems for a long time. For myself, throughout my career, but especially as European Commissioner for Health, this has been a political goal and a personal mission.
Health policy is not just about systems and institutions. It is not only economics. It is first and foremost about people. Without patient involvement, the lived experience of millions of Europeans would be unheard and our actions would be much less effective.
It is exactly with this principle in mind that we have built the European Health Union: with patients at the centre.
Over these last years, we have established its key pillars that:
- Reinforce our preparedness and ability to respond to health threats;
- Deliver Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the EU’s most comprehensive cancer action plan ever, which is already changing the realities of cancer for patients and their families;
- Ensure better and timely access to the medicines that our citizens need;
- Harness the power of digital technologies and data for people’s health;
- And put our mental health on par with our physical health where it belongs.
None of this would have been possible without your input and your advocacy. Your voice matters and shapes our agenda. Patient engagement in the field of cancer, for example, has been invaluable.
This is something I know first hand. Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan was designed for and with patients. Patients also play a strong role in the work of the European Reference Networks for rare and complex diseases, as they bring together more than 300 patient representatives from 28 European countries.
Another example is mental health – where we have seen that the old approaches to care are not enough. Patients need to be heard and feel safe when discussing their mental health. We have launched the ‘Healthier Together’ initiative, as well as the comprehensive approach to mental health to make a difference for those in need.
Both of these initiatives were co-created with patient organisations. Patients are also central to our proposals to revise our pharmaceutical rules. We designed that reform in order to incentivise industry to develop medicines in areas of unmet medical needs.
We created a new incentive for industry to ensure timely patient access to new medicines across the EU. Because today, often patients in smaller and less wealthy countries only get access to new medicines with a delay – or not at all. And we ensured patients will have a stronger voice in committees of the European Medicines Agency.
Technology and digitalisation are tools that can empower patients and hold great promise for improving patient care. With the European Health Data Space, we give power to patients to control their health data, and to travel with it across borders.
We are also boosting research and innovation with real-world data to develop new diagnostic tools and treatments. Similarly, input from patients is not only appreciated, but legally required, by the EU Health Technology Assessment Regulation.
We are identifying patients who can contribute to these assessments with the help of patient organisations such as the European Patients Forum.
Finally, through our EU4Health programme we are providing funding for patient advocacy – be it for training for patient advocates, fostering more collaboration, or ensuring that smaller, groups with fewer resources are not left behind.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Patient voices must necessarily be heard, if we want to build the resilient and people-centred health systems we seek. I am proud to have served this community throughout my professional career. And as European Commissioner, I have given my utmost to strengthen your voices. You can be sure my work in patient advocacy will not stop when my mandate is over. Let’s keep up the good work across our Union and across the globe.
Thank you, and I wish you an excellent discussion.
Source – EU Commission