“Новые стратегии здравоохранения и благополучие в Европе: разработка политики Здоровье-2020”. Заявление на 14-м Европейском форуме здравоохранения в Гаштайне

7 October 2011, Bad Hofgastein, Austria

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have had a wonderful session, considering new policies, strategies and ways forward towards health and well-being in Europe. I strongly believe that, to challenge the current health problems in Europe and to move forward towards better health and well-being for all in Europe, we need completely new thinking for health development. Health 2020 represents that new thinking.

The policy is not an end in itself. Its goal is quite simply better health for all of the populations of the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region. We must get Health 2020 right, and that is why I so much welcome the many full discussions here this week at Gastein, and the full discussion and consultation about the policy that we are embarking upon over the next 12 months before the next session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in Malta in September 2012. I hope that all of you here, and the institutions and organizations that you represent, will be part of this discussion.

Today we heard about vital components of this new thinking, which will be fully reflected in Health 2020.

First, it is clear that the current burden of diseases, mostly noncommunicable, reflects the full range of determinants of health stretching right across the whole of society. It is also clear that the way these determinants act within societies results in deep differences and inequalities in health and well-being between different population groups. Fundamentally, that is why Health 20202 must be built around a whole-society and “whole of government” approach. That is also why health improvement depends upon working between sectors for health, and the notion that health interests and improvement must be reflected in all policy development, which have come to be called “health in all policies”.

Second, greater capacities and effectiveness of public health institutions and services are absolutely essential. We will not see the stronger policy development for health, the health protection, the attention to health promotion and disease prevention, and the stronger primary care and health care services that we need, without stronger public health in all our societies. We have today heard about our own WHO European regional initiative to achieve just that, which was warmly endorsed by our Regional Committee, meeting in September this year in Baku, Azerbaijan. Over the coming 12 months, we shall be talking and consulting widely about the development of an action plan to really drive forward this improvement in public health. We also heard of very important initiatives from the European Union on studying and strengthening public health capacities, and, at country level, from Finland, practical proactive public health work to strengthen noncommunicable disease prevention.

Third, this new policy, Health 2020, must have a completely new and rethought relationship with people, both citizens and patients. We need new forms of governance for health, forms that are horizontal and networked and that include all necessary societal interests. People are a vital part of health development; indeed they are one of health’s strongest assets. Health and human development go hand in hand. The asset-based approaches about which we have heard attempt to create the conditions required by individuals and communities to maximize their health potential. We must think of the creation of health, rather than only the prevention of disease, as a key outcome of success and as a precursor of well-being. These approaches aim to identify key assets that are protective of health, focusing on the concepts of resilience and social capital.

Inherent in this approach is the notion of citizens and patients as fully informed participants in policy development and the planning, creation and consumption of health and health care. This notion of full participation is not new: for example it was fully expressed in the Health for All movement going back several decades. Yet we have heard today of new thinking about and forms of expression of these concepts, without which the health improvement we seek in the modern context will simply not work as it should.

These then are some of the vital concepts that will inform Health 2020 and that the policy must make sense of and get right. I would like to thank all those who have spoken today, as well as the panellists and discussion participants, for explaining and clarifying these ideas and for contributing to that rich discussion we are seeking to ensure that Health 2020 is fully developed conceptually, informed by the best evidence and science available and, perhaps above all, practical and capable of full implementation across all of our societies. As I said earlier, that is precisely the debate we seek and welcome over the coming months.

Thank you.