Abstract

• Author: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (European Commission)
• Pages: 4-4

The organisation of resilient health and social care

following the COVID-19 pandemic

4

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions about the resilience of health systems

across the globe. Many analyses of its impact and the responses adopted have already

been published. The Panel received a mandate tolook beyond the current crisis and

consider how health systems can prepare better for future threats. Specifically, the

mandate requested a new framework for the organisation of health and social care

following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Opinion (1) identifies the building blocks of resilient health and social care systems,

(2) explores the elements and conditions for capacity building to strengthen health

system resilience, (3) addresses healthcare provision for vulnerable patient groups and

how to sustain such provision in a system under stress, and (4) sets out an approach to

develop and implement “resilience tests” of Member State’s health systems.

The recommendations target a number of key areas, including: enhancing workforce

training and resilience, reviewing research and development and procurement (especially

for innovative medicines), identifying and reducing disinformation, fostering inter-

professional and inter-sectoral collaboration with community health workers and informal

care givers for example, integrating information and communication technologies across

care levels and public health, strengthening primary and mental health care, increasing

public health focus onpsychological distress, debating methods for Member States to

collect and share aggregate health data on ethnicity and socioeconomic status,

developing and deploying online trainings for frontline health and social care

professionals regarding care provision to vulnerable groups, and finally investing from

the European Commission in the development and implementation of (a) comprehensive

resilience testing of health systems that use qualitative and quantitative data collection

methodologies to generate meaningful, actionable results for health system

transformation, and (b) corresponding learning communities within and across Member

States to share lessons learned through this process.

Keywords: care organisation, health care, social care, building blocks, capacity building,

vulnerable groups, health systems resilience, resilience-testing, ‘SARS-CoV-2’, COVID-19

Opinion to be cited as:

Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health (EXPH), The organisation of resilient

health and social care following the COVID-19 pandemic, 25 November 2020

© European Union, 2020

ISSN 2315-1404ISBN

doi:xxxxND-xxx

https://ec.europa.eu/health/exph/overview_en