Copenhagen, 27 April 2023
Ever stronger collaboration on a range of health issues underpinned the first official visit to the WHO Regional Office for Europe by Dr Péter Takács, Hungary’s State Secretary for Health who assumed office almost a year ago.
Discussions with WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, at the 26 April one-day meeting covered diverse themes, at a time when Hungary aims to embark on significant changes in health care to expand its efforts to ensure health for all.
“The COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed Hungary, as it did the rest of Europe and indeed our entire world, that we cannot take our health systems for granted, including primary health care,” said Dr Takács. “From the lessons learned amid the crisis, we can and must strengthen health resources, infrastructure and delivery, harnessing technology and innovation to better serve our population, while also nurturing our health and care workforce.”
“This is a day and age of permacrisis, with multiple and often overlapping health and humanitarian emergencies,” noted Dr Kluge. “From emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19 to long-running stubborn diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, from the ravages of the climate crisis and its impacts on health to the health-care workforce crisis that’s rocking our Region, we have to adopt a dual track approach. This means preparing better for the emergencies we know lie ahead, even while we strengthen essential, everyday health services and systems. WHO/Europe looks forward to collaborating with Hungary on this.”
The agenda of the dialogue included:
- strategizing on the upcoming 7th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, hosted by Hungary in Budapest on 5–7 July, where governments and civil society partners will discuss the health impacts of the climate crisis and other environmental health factors, feeding into regional collaboration;
- strengthening efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance, an issue of immense concern across the WHO European Region and globally;
- operationalizing the One Health approach, which brings together the health of humans, animals and the environment, recognizing how connected each is to the other;
- expanding digital health and artificial intelligence health initiatives in Hungary to generate more robust health data, and achieve more efficient and cost-effective solutions in reaching a greater number of patients;
- investing in the health and care workforce, to address long-term challenges that came to the fore amid the pandemic, including burnout and other issues affecting health-care providers;
- thanking Hungary for having received refugees from Ukraine amid the relentless war there, now in its second year, providing essential services including access to health care;
- voicing WHO’s support to Hungary as it prepares to assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“The WHO Country Office in Hungary works closely with WHO/Europe to support the Hungarian health authorities and health system,” said WHO Representative to Hungary, Dr Haris Hajrulahovic. “We truly appreciate our close working relationship with the government and other health stakeholders, now and always.”