I och med Sveriges medlemskap i EU och unionens utvidgning har nya utmaningar och möjligheter för svensk och europeisk sjukvård uppstått.

- Det är viktigt med ett europeiskt samarbete där vi sätter patienten i fokus, säger Ylva Johansson.

Den europeiska gruppen av socialdemokratiska sjukvårdsministrar, där även Belgien ingår, startade sitt samarbete redan augusti 2004 i Aachen, Tyskland. Den europeiska gruppen ingår i ett globalt nätverk av socialdemokratiska sjukvårdsministrar, som samarbetar utifrån principerna om solidaritet och allas vård på lika villkor.

Nästa möte kommer att hållas i Sverige, och till det mötet kommer även Portugal att inbjudas.

Läs det gemensamma uttalandet:

International Forum on Access to Health Services

We, the Ministers of Health of Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden met in Aachen in August 2004 in the framework of the International Forum on Access to Health Services with the aim of promoting the principles of solidarity, universality and equity in health services.

Since then, the Forum continued its efforts to strengthen health services and to make them increasingly efficient and appropriate for citizens needs.
The Forum have now met again in Toledo, in March 2005, bearing in mind the developing circumstances created in Europe by the process of enlargement and by the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for the European Union.

We believe, in these circumstances, there is an opportunity to reaffirm common principles that underpin health systems throughout the European Union such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and respect for human rights.

In Toledo we agreed on the need to formulate some common principles to guide the development of healthcare systems throughout the European Union. We believe that this is important particularly in the light of patients mobility, to allow patients to be confident that the care they receive in other Member States will be within these common principles, as they are interpreted in the context of the national health system concerned.

We believe that these principles should inform our co-operation in health with other countries outside the European Union.

In Toledo, we had an initial discussion on the following common principles and agreed to pursue this discussion more broadly:

• Health systems are the responsibility of Member States

Throughout the European Union health care systems should be managed according to the principles of equity, solidarity and universality; and within a transparent framework covering all that follows:

• Human dignity and autonomy are recognised and respected, including the right to make complaints and receive the appropriate response
• Free and informed consent
• Every patient is treated according to her or his health needs without discrimination based for example on financial resources or gender
• Active participation by citizens and patients in health policy decision-making
• Access to health protection and promotion and to quality and safe health care under the conditions established by national laws and regulations
• Information on issues related to health, including proper confidentiality about personal health data.