Eurocarers has sent a letter to the Chair and members of the Expert Panel on Better Ways of Investing in Health
On the European Carers’ Day, Eurocarers has sent a letter to the chair of the Expert Panel on Better Ways of Investing in Health, who is currently working on care organisation following the COVID19 pandemic. While welcoming this work and its focus, we ask the experts to seriously consider the heavy impact of the COVID-19 crisis on informal carers.
The letter stresses that the COVID-19 crisis and the policy responses to it have done nothing but to aggravate the challenges facing carers. Confinement measures and the reallocation of professional care services to the most severe cases have indeed greatly enhanced carers’ isolation and have deprived them of their usual support systems – when they existed. As a result, many carers have found themselves in first line in the provision of care to dependent people and despite the fact that, statistically speaking, a large portion of carers belongs to the most at-risk age groups. Therefore, we ask the expert panel to consider carers as part of the vulnerable people. Of course, we also offer to share more information as we continue to carry out our own research on the impact of the pandemic on informal carers across Europe. Read Eurocarers’ Letter-to-expert-panel-on-investing-in-health-October-2020.pdf.
About the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health
This panel is an interdisciplinary and independent group established by the European Commission to provide non-binding independent advice on matters related to effective, accessible and resilient health systems. The Expert Panel aims to support DG Health and Food Safety in its efforts towards evidence-based policy-making, to inform national policy making in improving the quality and sustainability of health systems and to foster EU level cooperation to improve information, expertise and the exchange of best practices. Examples of areas of activities include, but are not limited to primary care, hospital care, pharmaceuticals, research and development, prevention and health promotion, links with the social protection sector, cross-border issues, system financing, information systems and patient registers, health inequalities.
The Expert Panel consists of 17 experts appointed in December 2019 for a period of 3 years. Appointed in a personal capacity, they are well-established, independent scientists, with over 10 years’ professional and multi-disciplinary experience in health area. More information on the Expert Panel can be found here.
