Hospitals and their Challenges  Author: Per Gunnar Svensson, Director General, International Hospital Federation (IHF).
The year 2004 ended with several sad notes. The tsunami disaster in South East Asia took a tremendous toll of lives, in particular in Indonesia, but also in other countries. The UNICEF report on child health reminded us of the toll still paid by children today. At the same time, AIDS is following its upward trend along with other major communicable diseases. And wars and violence are still in the picture in many places around the world. On the other side of the coin, hospitals and their professionals are deeply involved in giving care and hope more than ever before. The next International Hospital Federation Congress “Hospitals and their Challenges” (20-22nd September 2005 in Nice, France) will keep this paradox at its very core. In fact, there is no time for pessimism in our ever active world and we know that listing out the difficulties we are facing is already a start in solving them. Two recent developments among others are showing strong signs at international level. Patient safety is one of them. An estimated one in ten patients worldwide becomes sick, is injured or even dies as a result of the healthcare they receive, although many of these adverse events in healthcare delivery, including medical errors, are preventable. To combat this problem and improve patient safety, global health leaders and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety in October 2004. This is the first time that a coalition of partners has joined efforts to act globally to improve safety. IHF is one of the partners in this alliance and we will discuss this topic further at the Nice Congress. The second one concerns the migration of health professionals. Employers and recruitment agencies in several wealthy countries are actively recruiting doctors and nurses from other parts of the world. But there is now a real concern in developing countries about the “brain drain” in the health sector and its consequences for population health. Charters, recommendations and rules are beginning to flourish aimed at promoting good recruitment practice and also to say that attention should be focused on retaining nurses rather than recruiting nurses from abroad. At the European level, hospitals are increasingly influenced by the European Union decisions. Mutual recognition of diplomas, public procurement regulations, EU drug policy and safety regulations, have among other things made a strong impact. Health was already present in the EU treaties because a high level of human health protection has to be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and actions. But now Europe will have a Constitution (if accepted in national parliaments and/or public referenda) in which for the first ever health care will be clearly included. As is the case in Europe, cross-border cooperation is essential worldwide for mutual learning and assistance. That is the reason we bring up topics of high importance in order to achieve such a dialogue: The role of hospitals in sustainable development Malpractice and patient safety Indicators for benchmarking and ranking of hospitals Recognition and valuation of hospital personnel Impact of e-health on hospitals And much, much more.
All in all we address the challenge of risk, the challenge of quality, the challenge of skills and the challenge of research. These and other topics related to hospitals will be the main theme of the 34th Congress of the International Hospital Federation, Nice, France, September 20-22nd, 2005. top Related Event : 34th Congress of the International Hospital Federation, Nice, France, September 20-22nd, 2005. Feature Reading: Mieux piloter l'hôpital : les tableaux de bord, by Eric De Roodenbeke, 2001. |
RSS