EPHO8: Assuring sustainable organisational structures and financing
The purpose of this essential public health operation (EPHO) is to ensure sustainable organisations and financing for public health to provide efficient, effective and responsive services. This entails developing services that are integrated, have minimal environmental impact with maximal health gain, and have sufficient funding for long-term planning. Sustainability in public health services will ensure that health is protected and promoted today and in the future.
A recent self-assessment of public health services in 41 of the 53 countries in the WHO European Region found that:
- Governments today spend on average 3% of their budgets on disease prevention. European Union countries spend a lower proportion of their health budgets on prevention (2.8%) than NIS (3.3%), South Eastern European countries (SEE) (3.8%) countries, with less than 1% of total health expenditure (e.g. Italy, Israel) to over 8% (e.g. Romania).
- Duration of funding plans is a challenge: many countries have short-term, even annual, budgets that are not suitable for preventive health strategies, which often take many years to plan and implement.
As a result, the following recommendation was made:
- establish sustainable funding mechanisms for public health services to ensure long-term planning
- design integrated public health organisations and functions to ensure services are responsive and sustainable.
Health systems financing
WHO/Europe helps countries to improve the financial aspects of their health systems. This is particularly important in the wake of the financial crisis, which has served to highlight the fragility of health financing arrangements in many countries.
