Minister for Health, Chris Fearne, presents the priorities of the Health Council of the Maltese Presidency to the Members of European Parliament

24.01.2017

Minister for Health, Chris Fearne, presents the priorities of the Health Council of the Maltese Presidency to the Members of European Parliament

“In the past, many

people died from

infectious diseases,

nowadays, thanks to

various actions including

sanitation regulations,

vaccination programmes

and research, we have

overcome this...

At the European Parliament in Brussels, Minister for Health Chris Fearne presented the priorities that the Health Council will be discussing during the next six months to the Committee Members responsible for the Environment, Climate Change, Public Safety and Food Safety (ENVI).

Minister Fearne stated that during the next six months we will be focusing on non-infectious diseases, with particular attention to obesity, that has reached an all time high in Europe.

Minister Fearne said that; “in the past, many people died from infectious diseases, nowadays, thanks to various actions including sanitation regulations, vaccination programmes and research, we have overcome this. Still, due to communicable diseases, when it comes to infectious diseases, we find ourselves in the same place we were 70 years ago”

The Maltese Minister added that obesity has been on the Commission’s agenda for a number of years and that we are currently half-way in executing an action plan on obesity. Minister Fearne further stated that we will be doing a mid-term review of said action plan which will then be presented to the Council of Health Ministers during their meeting in Malta next March.

Chris Fearne explained how; “another priority is the cooperation between member states with regards to health provisions, amongst which lie specialised centres for rare diseases, and European Reference Networks (ERN). These specialised centres for particular rare diseases can share their knowledge and research with other centres and countries.”

Related to this, training for post-graduate professionals working in the medical field is required.

Minister Fearne spoke about health priorities that will be discussed during the Presidency’s six months. These include access to medicine, infectious diseases such as HIV, antimicrobial resistance, discussions with pharmaceutical companies and ehealth week.

Next May, an ehealth week conference will be held in Malta with a predicted attendance of 2000 delegates. This conference will address information technology and the health of our patients.