Country work
Albania
The Institute of Public Health in Tirana as a founding member since 2006 of the South East European (SEE) Network on Workers’ Health. In 2009, WHO/Europe provided technical support in the preparation of the curriculum for training doctors and labour inspectors upon the request of the Institute, and prepared an assessment of the Albanian occupational health system.
WHO/Europe's support for 2010-2011 concerns strengthening occupational health services through the development of national strategy and action plan, and developing curricula for capacity building of human resources, with a special focus on basic occupational health services (BOHS). Activities included a workshop with key stakeholders to evaluate the occupational health system (September 2010) and a "training the trainers" workshop to build capacity of primary care providers (including doctors and nurses) on BOHS (December 2010).
Croatia
In 2008-2009, WHO/Europe supported Croatia in the preparation of a national action plan to implement the WHO Global Plan of Action on Workers Health (GPA). A national workshop was organized in Sinj in April 2009 with focus on access to and quality of occupational health services (objective 3 of the GPA).
Building on previous achievements, the biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health for 2010-2011 aimed at strengthening the occupational health system.
In June 2010, a national workshop on strengthening the occupational health information system using evidence-based indicators was organized in Groznjan, Croatia, by the Andrja Stampar School of Public Health, WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health and national counterpart for the BCA implementation. Participants came from several national institutions (the National Council for Occupational Health and Safety, Croatian Institute for Protection Health and Safety at Work, Croatian Institute for Health Insurance of Occupational Health and Safety, Croatian Institute for Public Health, Croatian Institute for Retirement Insurance, Croatian Society of Occupational Health, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Republic of Croatia). The Sixth meeting of the South East European (SEE) Network on Workers’ Health was also held there to exchange information and experiences. As it was agreed, the first training programme on BOHS capacity building in health care sector, called “South Eastern European Workplace Academy (SEEWA)”, was organized by the Andrja Stampar School of Public Health in Zagreb, in June 2011.
Montenegro
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health for 2010-2011 aimed at providing support for the implementation of the national strategy and action plan on occupational health, which was recently adopted by the Ministry of Health.
Activities included a national workshop on the implementation of national strategy and action plans (November 2010) and a “training the trainers” workshop to build capacity on basic occupational health services (BOHS) in primary health care (PHC) through the training programme South Eastern European Workplace (SEEW) (2011).
Poland
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health in 2010-2011 aimed at making recommendations on strengthening the stewardship function of the Ministry of Health for the improvement of health promotion at the workplace.
Activities included meetings with key stakeholders to draw a situation analysis (September 2010), a national workshop with the Polish Network for Workplace Health promotion for developing the role of Ministry of Health in the strategy for dissemination of the workplace health promotion programmes in Poland (December 2010), and a national workshop on good practices for workplace health promotion, organized with the participation of the organizations of employers and employees and the Polish Network for Workplace Health Promotion (2011).
Russian Federation
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health and Social Development included the development of innovative models for occupational health services.
As a first step, Russian experts were trained in Finland and Estonia on the organization and work methods of occupational health services. A follow-up conference in 2005 on occupational health in the Russian Federation was the second step of the process and reviewed the current arrangements providing preventive health services at the workplace. Participants debated how to introduce essential packages for occupational health services. The conference was organized jointly by WHO/Europe, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Development, and the Institute of Occupational Medicine under the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (IOM/RAMS). In 2008-2009, IOM/RAMS organized symposia regarding the implementation of WHO Global Plan of Action on Workers' Health in the Russian Federation.
Serbia
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health in 2010-2011 aimed at conducting a comprehensive assessment of the role and position of occupational health services within the Serbian health system reform, with policy recommendations on the integration of occupational health services into the health care delivery system.
In 2010, WHO/Europe provided advice on improving the access to and the quality of occupational health services. A report of a WHO consultation mission on implementation of action for the roadmap for occupational health services was produced in July 2010.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health started since 2004 with the Institute of Occupational Health (IOH) in Skopje, WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health, as national counterpart. This contributed to the adoption of national strategy on occupational health and safety, to development of packages of occupational health services, and to identification of vulnerable groups until 2009. In 2010-2011, BCA activities aimed at strengthening occupational health services with information system and integration of basic occupational health services into primary health care and public health services.
Activities included a visit to the Ministry of Health to provide technical support on the development of occupational health services in the framework of the ongoing health reform process (September 2010), support to a national workshop to develop a curriculum and training materials for providers of primary health care on basic occupational health services (October 2010) and the organization of a national workshop on occupational health surveillance and information system (2011).
Turkey
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health for 2010-2011 aimed at delivering recommendations for redefining and expanding package for PHC to provide including basic occupational health services.
Activities included the preparation in 2010 of a situation analysis of workers’ health in Turkey and a national stakeholder workshop for national policy towards integration of basic occupational health services (BOHS) into PHC system in 2011. The Turkish translation of “Principles and practice of basic occupational health services” will be published, the curriculum on BOHS will be developed, and training of trainers workshops will be organized in 2011 .
Ukraine
The biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health for 2004-2005 included developing a national programme on occupational health. A working group prepared the first draft of a national strategy on occupational health.
WHO/Europe and the Institute of Occupational Medicine under the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences held a workshop to provide a forum for stakeholders’ review and input to finalize the national strategy. The draft document was then approved by the Ministry of Health and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences to guide policy development and research in Ukraine.
