Developing of “Local Health Councils” in cooperation with local administration, local health actors and citizens

Developing of “Local Health Councils” in cooperation with local administration, local health actors and citizens.
Period: 2009 - 2011

Partners
•    Somepro vzw
•    CM Turnhout
•    FDAAM
•    ACoR

In Romania, more and more policy authorities are referred by central government to the most suitable policy level (principle of decentralisation & subsidiarity), from which local policymakers receive new tasks. Their experience of this area is rather small or non-existent and it is likewise necessary to find solutions for a number of new symbiotic problems as a result of modernisation, which are strongly felt on local level.
Healthcare is no exception. On the one hand, organised availability of healthcare under the communist system has disappeared and on the other hand, new socio-economic changes have taken place. The direct consequences for healthcare and for the citizens are not by any means absent and include privatisation, shortage of general practitioners, care in the family and voluntary aid are disappearing due to migration into the towns and abroad, an absence of further development of the provision of (existing) socio-medical services, a shortage of geriatric care and difficult access to medical services.
The local level (mayors, local responsible institutions, etc.) will shoulder their responsibility for healthcare. In Romania there is growing awareness that local policymakers must themselves take the initiative on filling the gap in local health policy and related services.
The development of this local health policy must take place within the community, in consultation with the parties concerned. In order to impart form and strength to this consultation, local level ‘health councils’ are formed. A health council consists of community leaders, medical care providers, social organisations, special interest groups and the inhabitants (patients). They carry out an analysis of the state of the local healthcare, to form a solid basis for promoting a number of concrete projects, which complement or support the provision of existing medical and socio-medical services.
On the basis of its experience of developing healthcare on local level, FDAAM has developed a methodology, which initiates a process introducing concrete implementation alongside the local partners. ACoR, the Romanian Association of Communities and Towns, is a suitable partner for the circulation of information. In Flanders we are able to fall back on Somepro and CM-Turnhout, who have adequate knowledge and experience of the development of local healthcare in Flanders and in Romania.
The need for local health councils is apparent from the ROE/030/05 project ‘Coordination Centre for Health Promotion’ where it is felt that supra-local structures function better, if similar structures also operate on local level.

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