Health system challenges and priorities in small European states were discussed at a policy dialogue organised under the auspices of the EU ERASMUS+ project “SMSHealth.eu - European Integration, Small States and Health”. The University of Malta, through a collaborative venture between the Institute for European Studies, the Islands and Small States Institute and the Department of Health Management is the scientific coordinator for this multi-country project.
The event was held at the Maastricht University in Brussels (Belgium) on April 26th, 2018 and the University of Malta was represented by Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat (Senior Lecturer Health Management), Prof. Roderick Pace (Institute for European Studies) and Dr Gianpaolo Tomaselli (Research Support Officer).
The event was chaired by Prof. Helmut Brand and Dr Timo Clemens from Maastricht University. Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat presented the key findings from research conducted during the last three years within health systems of four small states across Europe (Malta, Estonia, Iceland, and Slovenia). The project focussed on four health policy issues namely; access to medicines, rare diseases, cancer, and health workforce mobility. Prof. Roderick Pace followed up contextualizing the project results in the current EU context and the ongoing debate on priorities for the future of Europe. Small state health systems are facing specific challenges associated with their small populations and small markets including resource and capacity constraints. Networking, cooperation at European level and EU funds/funded projects were identified as essential mechanisms in mitigating these challenges. However, whilst EU policies were perceived as supportive in the areas of health workforce mobility, cancer and rare diseases they appear to be of limited support or in some cases impact negatively on affordable access to medicines.
The dialogue was also addressed by Sylvain Giraud (European Commission, DG SANTE) and Nina Renshaw (European Public Health Alliance)
A round table discussion to identity future research priorities for small states health systems was held in the afternoon. Delegates from several small European states participated. It was confirmed that most of challenges that emerged from the comparative study conducted in Malta, Estonia, Iceland, and Slovenia, are common to other small states in Europe. Other health policy priorities such as public and private sector workforce mobility, quality, regulation, and access to eHealth were also identified as priority areas for small states. The round table was by participants from Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, San Marino, and Slovenia. This workshop followed a series of events organised by the SMSHealth.eu Network in Malta, Estonia, and Slovenia. The final workshop – focused on rare diseases in small states – will be held in Reykjavik (Iceland) on May, 2018.
Presentations from the workshop will become available on the .
