On the occasion of the World Health Day 2018, SEEHN Secretariat and Regional Health Development Center on Public Health Services hosted by the Institute of Public Health in Skopje, marked the event on Thursday, April 5th at the Best Western Hotel Turist in Skopje.
World Health Organization established April 7th as World Health Day 70 years ago and this year the theme and slogan was “Universal Health Coverage: everyone, everywhere. Health for All”
Addressing the audience Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic, Director of SEEHN Secretariat, underlined that all countries of the SEE region share common economic, environmental, demographic, political, challenges which all combined make a huge impact and diminish universal access to healthcare services, essential quality care and financial protection thus ultimately determining a huge gap of 10 years less in life expectancy comparing to the ones in the EU region.
- SEEHN will work intensively with its Member States in the forthcoming period for further upgrading public health services moving towards achieving its commitments from the Chisinau Pledge, which focus on:
- Striving universal health coverage for our populations
- Increasing public financing for health
- Sustaining and strengthening the regional cooperation in public health
- Working more closely and efficiently with our partners.
This is what we all can do to achieve UHC at the regional, governmental, individual level by spotting policy-makers’ power to transform the health of their nation and to invite them to be part of the change; by sharing examples on the progress achieved towards UHC and encourage others to find their own path; by providing tools for structured policy dialogue on how to advance UHC nationally and by supporting such efforts at the regional level ( through expanding service coverage, improving quality of services, reducing out-of-pocket payments) pointed out Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic.
She reiterated that SEEHN is committed to further supporting and working in this area and to spreading best practices in every possible occasion.
Our efforts aim to enhance people’s health, and the 2018 slogan “Health for All” shall be the headline of our daily activities that ultimately will drive changes for the other half of population to enjoy high qualitative healthcare services, concluded Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic.
