In 2020 the 70th World Health Organization Regional Committee for Europe accredited HOPE to participate in future sessions of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. As an accredited non-state actor, HOPE will receive an invitation for the annual Committee taking place in September to join as an observer, submit written and oral statements, which will also be made available on WHO/Europe website.
The WHO encourages HOPE to strengthen its collaboration with WHO/Europe technical units and country offices.
For HOPE the work with WHO Europe mainly started after 1989 with conferences “East meets West” and a programme of twinning’s of hospitals Western Europe/ Central and Eastern Europe. HOPE was involved from the start in the Health Promoting Hospitals network initiative and is part of the scientific Committee for the annual conference.
HOPE has been involved in various WHO initiatives: for example, the practical tool for hospital services master planning with a special focus on integrated care; the work on the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, the consultation by the European Framework for Action on Integrated Health Services Delivery and more recently in the Primary Health Care Advisory Group.
The first collaboration HOPE envisages with the Regional Office for Europe in 2020–2022 would be on health workforce. This would involve working on the extension of the Framework for Action Towards a Sustainable Health Workforce in the WHO European Region and in addition working on the mobility of healthcare professionals, on the basis of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The second area for collaboration would be on integrated care and more generally the coordination between the different health and social care actors around patients and their families. The entry point of this collaboration would be the content of the resolution on 10 evidence-based policy accelerators for strengthening primary health care in the region. Additionally, HOPE will continue its ongoing engagement and contribution to i) the consultation of the European Framework for Action on Integrated Health Services Delivery and ii) the Primary Health Care Advisory Group.