News

Patients’ representatives and public health organisations in Europe last week held a press conference aimed at highlighting the need for access to high quality patient information while recognizing the important role of patients’ organizations as information providers. These were the key messages promoting a new Policy Statement on Patient Information, developed by the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO), on the occasion of the second joint European Public Health Conference held by the European Public Health Association (EUPHA).

“Patient information is essential to Europeans receiving high quality care”, says Jolanta Bilinska, Polish
Board Member of IAPO. “Without information we cannot learn what is right and begin to question the
things that go wrong”, Ramazan Salman, the Turkish Executive Managing Director of the Ethno-Medical Centre (EMZ), noted that “Language barriers existing in Europe need to be overcome to provide patient information."

“Mobility in Europe is a challenge to the traditional ways of patient information.” The EUPHA annual conference in Lodz addressed the broader issues of health in Europe. “In times of limited funding for health improvements, health information can lead to savings that are of benefit to the patients”, explains Walter Deville, of Utrecht University. “Staying healthy and getting well are the best outcomes of increased health literacy. Migrants are the largest minority across Europe – they should be enabled to learn more about health systems and patient information is key to this.”

www.patientsorganizations.org/