Press Releases and Articles

CPME adopted the following policy documents at its Board meeting on 25 October 2008 in London:

Many countries all over the world and also in Europe have actual and projected shortages of physicians, which is very likely to result in reduced availability of health services and decrease of health safety of the countries’ populations. The EU Member States should therefore, by cooperating and communicating, strive to keep a balance between the added value of internationally qualified physicians and the sustainability of the individual national health systems.

CPME identified clear principles to be taken into account in a common European strategy. CPME calls EU institutions and national governments to act along these principles.

·       Consent and confidentiality  EN / FR

All patients, irrespective of background and the nature of their problem, should be able to seek medical assistance being confident that their sensitive personal data can only be accessed by health care personnel who need this information to provide appropriate care. The patient should be contacted to give explicit consent to extended use of the data.

·      Cross-border mobility, e-prescription, telemedicine and future applications EN / FR

CPME encourages the development of e-health solutions that support clinical work, enhance communication between healthcare professionals and patients, and strengthens patient safety. E-health must also support the cornerstones of the patient-physician relationship which are the face-to-face contact and confidentiality.

 In order to secure that patients get the best possible healthcare and that the medical profession and science develops in that direction, all users should be involved in the development of future e-health applications since their inception. This also applies to the design of a Community template of e-prescriptions. Furthermore, the dispensing of a product to the patient by e-prescription should be conditional on successful completion of verification procedures.

CPME recognizes the absolute need of actions in the field of Mental Health and Well-being. It therefore urges NMAs to stimulate discussions on concrete action plans regarding the 5 priority areas of the European Pact.

CPME supports the End Water Poverty[1] (EWP) campaign, which calls for immediate action to address the global crisis in water and sanitation.

CPME supports the European Patients Forum[2] recommendations on Health literacy and a European Parliament Declaration on this issue. CPME stresses the importance of not only assuring the provision of quality, objective and unbiased information, but also of who is responsible for the provision of this information.

CPME also decided to continue work on the development and use of e-learning in close cooperation with the National Medical Organisations. 

Finally, CPME considers that communication training must be prioritised and be part of the doctors’ lifelong learning, and that resources must be allocated to that end.  CPME will develop further work in this area in collaboration of all the National Medical Organisations and all the stakeholders involved in the development of better communication in the provision of healthcare, and particularly with patients.

CPME Policy documents are available at: http://www.cpme.eu/policy.php

Lisette TIDDENS-ENGWIRDA

CPME Secretary General

Tel.: +32 2 732 72 02

Fax: +32 2 732 73 44

e-mail: secretariat@cpme.eu

For more information about CPME, consult our website: http://www.cpme.eu