Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health A partnership committed to and Social Well-being achieving tangible results e-Newsletter Issue 1/2012 Contents Dear Reader… NDPHS Continues Efforts to It is widely recognised that health is crucial in the context of the ageing Have Health Prioritised on society and challenges posed to sustainable economic development. Yet, the Regional Agenda 1 the importance of health is not properly reflected on the regional coopera- tion agenda. One example is the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic The Demography Challenge Sea Region (EUSBSR), where health has been listed as a sub-priority. Since in the Baltic Sea Region 2 last year our Partnership has taken several actions to address this problem Making Success Stories and our efforts will continue. This issue of our e-newsletter will give you with Russian Partners 4 some details on this. Following the above is an article about the 9th Baltic Sea States Summit rd 3 EUSBSR Annual Forum held in May 2012 in Stralsund, Germany and, more specifically, its plenary Discusses the Review of the session on the impact of demographic change. The Prime Ministers had Strategy Action Plan 5 a stimulating debate on main challenges posed by the demographic change PrimCareIT: Counteracting and discussed policies to induce win-win situations for the future. Brain Drain and Professional You will also find two articles about the 3rd Annual Forum of the EU Strat- Isolation of Health 6 egy for the Baltic Sea Region held a few days ago in Denmark. Many interest- ing events took place during it, which provided an opportunity to discuss the progress so far and the way forward. One of them was a session “Making Success Stories with Russian Partners” co-organised by the NDPHS. NDPHS Secretariat NDPHS Continues Efforts to Have Health Prioritised on the Regional Agenda Last year the NDPHS embarked on the challenging task Our prosperity of the region is based on human capital. of ensuring that health would be given a more prominent Consequently a healthy population is a critical factor behind role on the regional agenda. In line with this, our Partnership sustainable economic development. Improvement of people’s is taking actions to ensure health is particularly important that health be visibly exposed in the context of the ageing among the funding priorities society, one of the greatest regional challenges in the 21st during the next EU financial century. Unless counteracted, period. The NDPHS position a decline in the working age paper (http://www.ndphs.org/ population and a higher num- ?database,view,paper,67), ber of people with chronic adopted by the Ministers re- non-communicable diseases sponsible for health during the will put an immense pressure 8th Partnership Annual Confer- on the national budgets and ence on 25 November 2011, is a will lead to loss of productiv- basis for the Partnership’s work ity in the decades to come. By towards this objective. Mr. Per Bødker Andersen, President of the Union of the Baltic Cities investing in health improve- 2 Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being NDPHS Continues Efforts to Have Health Prioritised on the Regional Agenda 1 ment and promotion, the economic gain will be two-fold: given in the EUSBSR Action Plan a status adequate to its role (i) healthy people are more likely to stay at the labour market and importance in the region’s societies. During the current longer and remain productive and (ii) reduced spending on days of austerity, some decision makers may feel tempted to treatment of ill health. focus too much on short-term gains and neglect the fact that The key role of health as a precondition for economic de- challenges such as the aging of society, the growing epidemic velopment is increasingly recognized not only at the national, of diabetes and the emerging lack of effective antibiotics can- but also the supranational level. However, this recognition not be put aside and left in a waiting room. If they are, the has so far not been sufficiently reflected when defining the future costs to our societies of today’s inaction or inadequate strategic priorities. For example, only a few European funding action will be significantly higher than what we should pay programmes currently operating in the Northern Dimension now. Being aware of this the NDPHS is taking efforts to el- area have explicitly included health among their priorities. evate the importance of health and social well-being in the Another example is the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region EUSBSR and have health included as a separate Priority Area (EUSBSR) and its Action Plan. Regarding the latter, regretta- in the EUSBSR Action Plan. bly, whereas other sectors are included as separate priorities, Surveys indicate that individuals place health among the health has been listed as a sub-priority (along with education, top priorities in their life and a recent Eurobarometer survey tourism and culture). This approach undermines the value, ranks healthcare system among the main concerns of the Eu- visibility and importance of health vis-à-vis other sectors. ropeans. The review process of the EUSBSR Action Plan pro- The EUSBSR Action Plan is currently being reviewed. To vides an opportunity to recognise a key role of health in con- that end the number and content of the Priority Areas is cur- tributing to smart and inclusive growth and to demonstrate rently being discussed, which will supposedly lead to some to people that their priorities and concerns are properly re- of the areas being merged or split. The Ministerial-level 8th flected on the regional cooperation agenda. Partnership Annual Conference agreed that health should be NDPHS Secretariat The Demography Challenge in the Baltic Sea Region The recent 9th Baltic Sea States Summit that took place an inclusive extension of that discussion. The need to investi- in the Baltic Sea coastal town of Stralsund, Germany on the gate ways of creating a sustainable labour market that deals 30-31 May focused its second plenary session on demog- with both inclusion of senior citizens and youth in gainful and raphy. productive employment as well as creating a good work-life The Summit of Prime Ministers hosted by Dr. Angela Mer- balance, healthy lifestyles and flexible employment cultures kel differed from previous Summits by inviting a keynote are all crucial for future prosperity and health of our region. speaker for each session to provide the Heads of Government In the current times of austerity there is a risk that long- with an expert outline of the chosen subject for reflection and term sustainable demography policy will be brushed aside discussion. The issue of Demographic change – consequenc- by short term crisis management. The average age of our re- es of an ageing society was introduced by Prof. James W. Vau- gion’s citizens is increasing – but the retirement age has not pel of the Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research. The increased to off-set this upwards trend in life expectancy. topic is of course particularly relevant in the context of health. Pension systems are therefore ill-equipped to take the full Back in February of this year the Prime Ministers of the strain of longer lives with fewer average working hours over Nordic-Baltic 8 cooperation plus the United Kingdom met the entire life-cycle. The health care system as well as the in Stockholm at the Northern Future Forum hosted by the service provision for our elderly are also in need of a re-think Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, to discuss this ex- away from its current form. People expect more flexibility act issue as well as the Forum´s other chosen topic of female and more choice, which is tailored specifically to their needs participation in the labour market. Both of these topics link but without a trade-off of possibilities for government to to competiveness and the untapped potential for economic stagger their departure from employment over a longer pe- growth and sustainability of the labour market. The Summit riod to ease the burden of the tax revenues as well as retain deliberations in Stralsund can be viewed through the lens of an active ageing policy. 3 2 Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being The Demography Challenge in the Baltic Sea Region 2 The Heads of Delegations discussed how best the coun- Social services are currently under immense pressure in tries could develop policies which would take a holistic view Europe due to the economic crises and budget constraints of the inter-relations between the different positions and pos- and cuts. In the future, as is already the case today in some sible policy options involved. parts of the world, more people will need social and health The main questions were centred upon which combina- care services for a longer time span and potentially a more tions of incentives and reforms could be introduced to induce progressively costly type of specialised care. This challenge win-win scenarios for the future? highlights a need to focus on innovation in assistance provi- A complex array of issues were discussed in detail from sion and health services. Resources must be used more effi- different country experiences of what had worked or was ciently to maintain the high quality of care from re-tooling the being tested; such as pension reform, tax incentives for the care and provision to suit new developments and techniques retention of older workers in the workforce, life-long learning as they come online. This is also a way to create new jobs in educational schemes, encouragement of an entrepreneurial the service and health sectors of our labour market with these mindset, especially innovations if we focus for older workers, hard enough - even be- pre-school system coming a source of ex- provision and paren- pertise for export and tal leave packages growth to other regions.