How citizens in border areas benefit from cross-border cooperation in the field of health was explored at a webinar organized on 20 May 2022 by the Healthacross Initiative in Lower Austria and the WHO Regions for Health Network (RHN). A wide range of cross-border activities were discussed, which were shown to improve access to health-care facilities and services for those living in border areas.
COVID-19 and cross-border cooperation
While COVID-19 has been a major crisis, which has had a huge negative impact, it has also been a powerful driver for change. During the most acute phases of the pandemic, lockdowns exposed the fragility and vulnerability of the health settings in many border areas of the European Region. Medical staff were often not allowed to cross borders to reach health-care facilities where they worked, threatening their proper functioning. This situation also translated into difficulties for patients in need of health care on the other side of a border.
However, the crisis also revealed the potential for cooperation, and there were many examples of cross-border solidarity, such as exchanges of medical equipment and patients. It was evident that cross-border health governance needed to be improved and strengthened, and there was a real willingness among participants to work towards better planning and coordination.
Policy dialogue and transnational agreements
Since the health-care sector is both complex and highly regulated, cross-border cooperation requires the involvement of a wide range of partners. This raises its own set of challenges, including legal and regulatory issues; a lack of adequate, harmonized and comparable health data; and language barriers.
To kick off a cross-border initiative, strong commitment to policy dialogue is essential, including collaboration at the national level between the ministries of health in the countries which border each other. The path towards a new governance model can be a long and difficult one, involving formal agreements and the development of joint strategies.
Sharing health data across countries requires intermediary structures (observatories, networks, etc.) as well as reciprocal trust and dialogue. Systems must be designed so they are compatible, comparable and regularly updated.
Examples of cross-border collaboration
Interreg Europe gave a series of presentations on some noteworthy health projects during the webinar. Their work focuses on institutional cooperation, innovation, training, diagnosis and treatment, equipment, and emergency care. Positive experiences shared included joint training sessions for health-care personnel working in cross-border settings, bilingual courses, the provision of multilingual information materials and signs in hospitals, joint initiatives involving ambulance operators and paramedical services, and rescue-related cooperation.
Common to the different initiatives was the conclusion that, by meeting and taking part in joint activities, doctors and other health-care staff were able to build trust between teams. In addition, it appeared that regions with cross-border governance arrangements were more resilient to external threats and emergencies in that they strengthened health-management services in border settings.