The European Commission published today the opinion of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health on the organisation of resilient health and social care following the COVID-19 pandemic. The opinion identifies the building blocks of resilient health and social care, explores the elements and conditions for capacity building to strengthen health system resilience, addresses healthcare needs of vulnerable patients at times of crisis, and defines a blueprint for resilience testing of health systems. 

The Panel’s recommendations include:

• creating adaptive surge capacity, taking into account solidarity mechanisms within and across borders;
• investment in primary care and in mental health;
• patient data disaggregation to ensure equity-driven decision making;
• strategies to monitor and reduce disinformation;
• linking databases across systems and sectors, in line with an integrated whole-of-society approach;
• providing specific training on dealing with socially deprived and minority groups;
• developing a resilience test toolkit and implementation methodology for health systems.

The opinion was discussed with stakeholders in a public hearing on 20 October 2020 and formally adopted by the Expert Panel during their meeting on 25 November 2020.

More information:

• Opinion of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health on the organisation of resilient health and social care following the COVID-19 pandemic
• Factsheet
• The Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health