Announcements
Latest contribution on PIE: Interprofessional learning: Collaborative work
By Yann Lefeuvre
When discussing interprofessional shared learning, one can see it from a patient's perspective or from a commissioner's perspective.
Currently patients have access to their usual family doctor, webbased information, social media, wlk in clinics, or hospital casualty pharmacists, and allied medical professions. The convenience of access - and potentially the revolving door of being seen by another care provider who would need to see them as patients have walked through the door, and ultimately redirect them towards their usual care provider causing fragmented health care, redundancy, massive waste, missed opportunities, potential unnecessary investigations and treatment leading to mistakes and errors as this feeds frustration - is more important than the relevance or the reliability of the source and patients end up a drift in a fragmented healthcare system, and suffer from lack of a relationship with a single trusted professional who can bring good clinical care, relevance to them information best interest and care plan.
Join PIE now and read the full text
“State of Health in the EU: shift to prevention and primary care is the most important trend across countries”
The European Commission published the reports that depict the profile of health systems in 30 countries. Country Health Profiles are being issued with the Companion Report that shows some of the biggest trends in the transformation of the healthcare systems and draws key conclusions from the Profiles.
Key findings
- Vaccine hesitancy is a major public health threat all across Europe, which can be tackled by improving health literacy, countering disinformation and actively involving health workers.
- The digital transformation of health promotion and disease prevention can result in winners and losers. People who would most benefit from mobile health and other such digital tools may be the least likely to have easy access to it.
- Gaps in health care accessibility are still very much a reality in the EU. Both the clinical needs and socioeconomic characteristics of patients need to be accounted for when measuring access to health care and its many barriers.
- Skill mix innovations among the health workforce show great potential for increasing the resilience of health systems. Promising examples of task shifting among health workers are found across the EU, particularly when it comes to enhancing the role of nurses and pharmacists.
- The product life cycle of medicines reveals ample scope for Member State cooperation in ensuring safe, effective and affordable therapies, including everything from rational spending to responsible prescribing.
Future mandates/questions for the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health
The Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health is an interdisciplinary and independent group established by the European Commission to provide non-binding advice on matters related to effective, accessible and resilient health systems. The Expert Panel supports DG SANTE in its efforts towards evidence-based policy-making and the development and availability of state of the art cross-country knowledge. The Panel issues opinions to inform national policy making in improving the quality and sustainability of their health systems and support EU level cooperation to improve information, expertise and the exchange of best practices.
After the appointment of the new members of the Panel by Director-General of DG SANTE in December 2019 the Panel should work on three mandates/questions in 2020. They would like to get an input from stakeholders - registered HPP members which questions the Panel should elaborate in their opinions. Deadline: 17th January 2020
See here the new Expert Panel Members for 2019-2020, including four members of the EFPC: Jan De Maeseneer, Dionne Kringos, Sabina Nuti and Christos Lionis
Launch of a Toolkit to help develop palliative care in primary care
In 2018 at Astana, the World Health Organisation (WHO) resolved that palliative care was a key component of primary care services. Members of the WONCA Special Interest Group in Cancer and Palliative care and the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) have produced an updated Toolkit to help the primary care workforce make palliative care available to all who might benefit.
PRIMORE Project: Healthy Ageing
The research branch of OTEurope, ROTOS, is finalizing a COST-proposal among research on the impact of occupational therapy on health and wellbeing of older adults. They are looking for colleagues of other disciplines to collaborate and willing to deliver a contribution on this proposal (writing period: early 2020).
Are you a senior researcher with interest and experience in aging research, please contact our advisory board member leen.deconinck@kuleuven.be. She will forward your details to the ROTOS-co-ordinator of this proposal.
Launch of a new MEP Interest Group to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) supported by the AMR Stakeholder network»
By Ann Marie Borg
A new MEP Interest Group on AMR has been set up to help address this global health threat under a multi-sectoral 'One Health' approach, integrating its human, animal, and environmental components. The establishment of a new MEP Interest Group on AMR during the World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2019 is a real milestone - ensuring that AMR remains high on the EU policy and political agenda. It is a strong signal that Members of the European Parliament are committed to finding real solutions to tackle one of the most serious health threats of our time, impacting the lives of many Europeans. The Interest Group is supported by our AMR Stakeholder Network and the Secretariat is co-hosted by the EPHA and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe.
Events
Nightingale2020. Transforming the Impact of Nursing on Global Health and Care
27th-28th October, 2020
London, UK
The call for Abstracts is now open! Deadline 8th January 2020
5th Austrian Primary Care Conference
22-24 April, 2020
Graz, the Austria
Including a key-note of EFPC coordinator Diederik Aarendonk
Seasonal influenza vaccination: Progressing towards the EU’s 75% target
21st January, 2020
Brussels, Belgium
Articles
New on Primary Health Care Research & Development (PHCR&D)
Healthcare utilisation and health literacy among young adults seeking care in Sweden: findings from a cross-sectional and retrospective study with questionnaire and registry-based data
Viktorsson, L., Yngman-Uhlin, P., Törnvall, E., & Falk, M. (2019). Healthcare utilisation and health literacy among young adults seeking care in Sweden: Findings from a cross-sectional and retrospective study with questionnaire and registry-based data. Primary Health Care Research & Development, 20, E151. doi:10.1017/S146342361900085
The objective of this study was to examine young adults’ healthcare utilisation and its possible association with health literacy. Many countries struggle with insufficient accessibility at emergency departments (EDs) and primary healthcare centres (PHCs). Young adults, aged 20–29 years old, account for a substantial number of unnecessary doctor visits where health literacy could be an explanatory factor. Healthcare utilisation has increased among young adults during the past decade, however, not comparatively more than for other age groups.
Young adults do not account for the increase in healthcare utilisation during the last decade to a greater extent than other age groups. Young adults’ reliance on the healthcare system is associated with health literacy, an indicator potentially important for consideration when studying health literacy and its relationship to more effective use of healthcare services.
*Primary Health Care Research & Development is the EFPC official Journal
Creating 21st century primary care in Flanders and beyond
Primary health care is the cornerstone of a strong, supportive health system, as was recognized in the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration and the 2018 Declaration of Astana. It has an important role now in meeting the global United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work for 2019–2023. This report focuses on primary care developments in Flanders, Belgium. Following state reforms in Belgium, the region is now upgrading and integrating its primary care services, aiming to improve their effectiveness and efficiency and the quality of life of both users and providers of those services. It is doing so through careful planning, sustained engagement across society, and systematic, well organized implementation. The report also touches on primary care developments in other parts of Europe – in Catalonia in Spain, Slovenia, Botoșani in Romania and Utrecht in the Netherlands – and concludes with lessons that these different experiences suggest might be useful to others.
What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review (2019). Health Evidence Network synthesis report 67
Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield. This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. The reviewed evidence included study designs such as uncontrolled pilot studies, case studies, small-scale cross-sectional surveys, nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, community-wide ethnographies and randomized controlled trials from diverse disciplines. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; promoting arts engagement at the individual, local and national levels; and supporting cross-sectoral collaboration.
[Summary, policy considerations (page IX):
“supporting the inclusion of arts and humanities education within the training of health-care professionals to improve their clinical, personal and communication skills.”]
Download here
Prof Mehmet Akman, former EFPC Advisory Board member, has a vast experience in this field, in particular when it comes to “How the arts support caregiving (including enhancing our understanding of health, improving clinical skills and supporting the well-being of formal and informal carers).“ See his presentation at the latest WONCA Europe conference. He is very much willing to support EFPC members if they are interested to develop activities in this field.
2020: unleashing the full potential of nursing
The Lancet, 2019
In December, the UK's nursing profession will celebrate the centenary of the Nurses Registration Act 1919, which set training and education standards for nursing and introduced regulation of the profession. This milestone nicely segues into 2020, designated by WHO as the first ever international year of the nurse and midwife. 2020 was chosen to honour the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale—nursing's most iconic figure—who cared for soldiers during the Crimean War and established nursing as a respectable profession for women. There is hope now that nurses and midwives, who are the backbone of primary health-care systems worldwide, will at last receive the recognition, support, and development they deserve.
Discussions and research around UHC have centred on design and financing; far less attention has been paid to the health-care workforce. More evidence on the role of nurses in primary care is sorely needed. For example, provision of care by lung nurse specialists has been shown to improve clinical outcomes for patients with lung cancer. Such findings can drive policy makers to strengthen investment in nursing, and cost analyses can help make an economic case for supporting the profession.
How to engage French professionals to undertake social responsibility at a local level?
S Gautier, Y Bourgueil. European Journal of Public Health, Volume 29, Issue Supplement_4, November 2019, ckz186.361, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.361
In France, primary care is organised according to the principles of private practice: independent providers, payment by fee for service, freedom of settlement... Successive reforms have introduced more regulation i.e. gatekeeping role for GPs, better recognition of professional groups, new forms of payment and promotion of team work and multi-professional practices. Today, the concept of Health Territorial and Professional Communities (HTPC) is becoming a key element of health care reform encouraging primary care professionals to meet with specialists and social workers at a larger level than practice. HTPC should address issues such as access to services, coordination of care and promoting of preventive actions toward populations. This implies change in the roles, skills, methods and resources needed on both professional and regulatory sides. This study explores levers of the professional commitment in the HTPC and resources necessary for it.
“Professional commitment emerges at a local level on a territory defined by the collaboration practices and habits following a bottom-up process.”
Primary Health Care: The Engine to Universal Health Coverage
By Sergio Minué
UHC shouldn´t be a luxury that only high-income countries can afford. There is a need to prioritize primary health care as the route to universal health coverage. PHC is the most efficient way of using available resources in health services, ensuring effective interventions are delivered at the lowest cost within the health system.
Community nurses' self‐management support in older adults: A qualitative study on views, dilemmas and strategies
Bolscher‐Niehuis, Marian J. T.; Uitdehaag, Madeleen J.; Francke, Anneke L. | Health & Social Care in the Community, Volume 28, Number 1, 1 January 2020, pp. 195-203(9)
Providing self‐management support is an appropriate task for community nurses. However, the support of self‐management sometimes triggers tensions in practice. The aim of this study was to explore community nurses' views of self‐management, the dilemmas community nurses face when providing support of self‐management by older adults and the strategies they use to solve these challenges. The results show that community nurses find it difficult to give a clear, definitive description of the concept of self‐management. They relate self‐management to ‘taking control of your own life’, ‘making your own choices and decisions’ and ‘being self‐reliant’. Different strategies are applied to resolve these scenarios. In the first case, strategies of ‘adapting’, ‘persuading’ and ‘taking control’ are used, and for the second case ‘empowering’, challenging’ and ‘tolerating’ are used. Creating a clear and shared understanding of ‘self‐management’ and facilitating community nurses to reflect on their dilemmas and strategies might help them in supporting self‐management by older adults.
Access to healthcare in the EU: an overall positive trend but important inequalities persist
Rita Baeten, Slavina Spasova and Bart Vanhercke (2019) In: Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Sociale Zekerheid, n° 1/2019, pp.199-219.
Page 214, Summary and Conclusions:
Fourth: many countries experience shortages of health professionals, in particular of professionals working in the publicly funded system, which leads to waiting lists. Factors which make working in the public system less attractive include poor wages and working conditions. Serious shortages of healthcare providers, particularly in primary care, have frequently been reported in rural areas, thus leading to inequalities in access to care between regions.
