In the light of the recent vaccine hesitancy trend, the European Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing In Health is working on “vaccination programmes and health systems in Europe”. Vaccination is an issue of importance to EFA because it is one of the prevetion tools that respiratory patients can have to avoid infectious that can be fatal to them.
In regards of its upcoming Opinion, the Expert Panel held a hearing on 13 September on “Vaccination programmes and health systems in Europe”.The Opinion focuses on 3 topics:
- informing and communicating (dialogue with those who are sceptical, to actively react to misinformation)
- having a more differentiated approach in prioritising vaccines concerning policies to implement
-strengthening the primary health sector (not only physicians, but also nurses, paediatric nurses to do vaccinations, but also physicians to vaccinate families of children, thereby increasing immunisation).
During the discussion period, topics such as the importance of the role of integrated IT, the need for targeted approaches to targeted populations, the need to incorporate research and the importance of educating healthcare professionals were touched upon. As a next step, the comments from the hearing will be considered by the panel and will be included in the report.
Through its opinions, the expert panels helps to identify aspects for consideration as well as tangible results that should be achieved to make a real change on health systems reforms and investments at EU level. It consists of 14 experts selected as members on 24 November 2016 for a 3 year period. which refers to a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services,
The opinion is available here.