EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, speaking at the European Health Forum Gastein, discussed ways to ensure sustainable health care systems. He called for an upscale of prevention efforts and for increasing the efficiency of health systems without compromising universality and quality of care.
 

Bad Hofgastein, 5 October, 2012 – “I believe crises provide opportunities to think creatively and push in-depth reforms”, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli told the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). Strategies to ensure sustainability of health care systems in times of scarce resources occupied centre stage in the discussions at this year‘s congress.

“We need to ensure that our children, and our children's children continue to enjoy a high level of health; for this we must make our systems more sustainable”, the Commissioner pointed out. “This is why we have to focus on where we can build efficiencies and cut costs, without compromising universality and quality of care.”

It was essential that efforts to prevent diseases were kept up and upscaled, Commissioner Dalli noted. “Working on the main causes of diseases, in particular smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity, is a key investment in the future which we need to sustain.”

The Commissioner underlined the importance of cooperation: „Working together across Europe adds value to the efforts to increase the efficiency of health systems, provides economies of scale and makes better use of expertise.”

The EHFG is the most important conference on health care policy in the European Union. In this its 15th year, the EHFG attracts more than 600 decision-makers from 45 countries to discuss major topics on the future of the European health care system from 3 to 6 October 2012.

Please find photos of the European Health Forum Gastein using this link: www.ehfg.org/940.html.

EHFG Press Office
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