A method for my role as Executive Director: Gather, Empower and Deliver as one.

"KlugeHans Henri PRegional Director for WHO Europe: The one prerequisite for transforming health systems across our region: Trust: In its absence, health workers are more likely to leave the profession, politicians are less willing to support health budgets and investments, and people like you and me, are at risk of poorer health outcomes or even completely avoidable deaths.: ‘It’ refers to ‘trust’; trust in health systems, to be more precise.: Trust cannot be bought. It is fragile and can only be earned over time.: Loss or lack of trust is among the key factors hindering the achievement of healthy and prosperous societies and economies for all.: Loss of trust in health systems in the 53 member states of the WHO European Region is, as a matter of fact, among the greatest challenges we face in terms of public health.: Confronting unprecedented challenges—among them a pandemic, earthquakes, polio outbreaks, measles, mpox, accelerating climate change and armed conflict uprooting millions of people—the Region’s health systems have responded in hugely different ways. Some have succeeded in turning weaknesses into strengths, whereas others have struggled with overcoming the many hurdles on their path, fuelling further distrust.: The challenge here is 3-fold.: Firstly, people feel they can’t rely on the health system that ought to protect them when needed. They know that hospitals are understaffed, under-funded. They are aware of the long back-logs. On a greater scale, this distrust threatens the very solidarity that underpins the European social model. Social media, in this context, is both a culprit and part of the solution in this age of disinformation and misinformation where there is no scarcity of unverified health information, which too rarely is counteracted with scientific facts from trusted health authorities.: Secondly, more and more politicians doubt today’s health systems can meet changing health needs and are reluctant to increase health budgets for systems they see as outdated, incapable of change.: Thirdly, the very health workers, the backbone of health systems, fatigued as our Region emerges from COVID-19, don’t have faith in their working conditions changing for the better, their salaries being raised or their contribution to society being valued for what it is.: None of these challenges are new—they’ve simply been left unaddressed, festering amid the travails of the pandemic, and now erupting in the form of burnout, attrition and strikes.: Responding, on one hand, is relatively simple.: What an effective response requires, is strategic foresight and strong political will, to help ensure that we as a Region deliver on what we’ve committed to, to the 1 billion people we serve. That we act on the fact, after the many COVID-19 lessons for which we have paid dearly, that spending on health is not a cost but an investment.: Let’s untangle all of this, one response at a time.: To build public trust, health systems need to be revitalized. They need to enter the era of digital health to help address growing patient dissatisfaction with inefficient processes and long waiting times. Out-of-pocket payments for health need to be reduced under the umbrella of universal health coverage, and people need to feel that talk about UHC isn’t just empty words.: To gain the trust of politicians and attract sustained funds, health systems need to prove they are capable of transforming. Investment in and modernization of the health sector need to go hand in hand.: And finally, to regain health and care workers’ trust, they need to be acknowledged, educated, paid, valued and trained to embrace the rapid changes that innovation brings, if health systems are truly fit-for-purpose to avail of these opportunities.: The bottom line is that health systems—and remember that systems are created and delivered by people—need to show they are trustworthy. The concrete case for investment needs to be in place for policymakers to back.: In December this year, health workers and ministers, academics, politicians, together with experts from the WHO and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, will be meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, to discuss trust and the transformation ahead—with people at the very centre.: Because systems do not transform themselves. People transform systems, and that can only be done in a climate of trust and co-creation.: The principles underlying Tallinn 2023—building on the groundbreaking Tallin Charter of 2008—are from the European Programme of Work, 2020–5 and its vision for a profound transformation of health systems and social care in the Region, with the vision of a digital, innovative, outcomes-directed and people-centred future.: The Charter was the product of a very different era. Our current day and age is marked by geopolitics more fluid than ever, galloping inflation and cost-of-living indices, extreme weather events triggering ever-mounting calamities, an infodemic marring social interactions. And of course, we are emerging from a pandemic labelled the biggest global crisis since World War Two.: Yet, our current day and age is also one of unprecedented opportunity.: Scientific and medical advances we—let alone the previous generation—could hardly have foreseen even a few years ago. IT and digital health marvels that have the potential to transform health and well-being. A world in which youth constitute one out of every three persons—a demographic reality that can be harnessed for a better future, if we allow it.: Amid our present reality, if we are to reform and make our health systems resilient enough to meet future health threats; if we are to galvanize regional support for the values espoused back in 2008, reinstating trust is the prerequisite."

"KlugeHans Henri PRegional Director for WHO Europe: The one prerequisite for transforming health systems across our region: Trust: In its absence, health workers are more likely to leave the profession, politicians are less willing to support health budgets and investments, and people like you and me, are at risk of poorer health outcomes or even completely avoidable deaths.: ‘It’ refers to ‘trust’; trust in health systems, to be more precise.: Trust cannot be bought. It is fragile and can only be earned over time.: Loss or lack of trust is among the key factors hindering the achievement of healthy and prosperous societies and economies for all.: Loss of trust in health systems in the 53 member states of the WHO European Region is, as a matter of fact, among the greatest challenges we face in terms of public health.: Confronting unprecedented challenges—among them a pandemic, earthquakes, polio outbreaks, measles, mpox, accelerating climate change and armed conflict uprooting millions of people—the Region’s health systems have responded in hugely different ways. Some have succeeded in turning weaknesses into strengths, whereas others have struggled with overcoming the many hurdles on their path, fuelling further distrust.: The challenge here is 3-fold.: Firstly, people feel they can’t rely on the health system that ought to protect them when needed. They know that hospitals are understaffed, under-funded. They are aware of the long back-logs. On a greater scale, this distrust threatens the very solidarity that underpins the European social model. Social media, in this context, is both a culprit and part of the solution in this age of disinformation and misinformation where there is no scarcity of unverified health information, which too rarely is counteracted with scientific facts from trusted health authorities.: Secondly, more and more politicians doubt today’s health systems can meet changing health needs and are reluctant to increase health budgets for systems they see as outdated, incapable of change.: Thirdly, the very health workers, the backbone of health systems, fatigued as our Region emerges from COVID-19, don’t have faith in their working conditions changing for the better, their salaries being raised or their contribution to society being valued for what it is.: None of these challenges are new—they’ve simply been left unaddressed, festering amid the travails of the pandemic, and now erupting in the form of burnout, attrition and strikes.: Responding, on one hand, is relatively simple.: What an effective response requires, is strategic foresight and strong political will, to help ensure that we as a Region deliver on what we’ve committed to, to the 1 billion people we serve. That we act on the fact, after the many COVID-19 lessons for which we have paid dearly, that spending on health is not a cost but an investment.: Let’s untangle all of this, one response at a time.: To build public trust, health systems need to be revitalized. They need to enter the era of digital health to help address growing patient dissatisfaction with inefficient processes and long waiting times. Out-of-pocket payments for health need to be reduced under the umbrella of universal health coverage, and people need to feel that talk about UHC isn’t just empty words.: To gain the trust of politicians and attract sustained funds, health systems need to prove they are capable of transforming. Investment in and modernization of the health sector need to go hand in hand.: And finally, to regain health and care workers’ trust, they need to be acknowledged, educated, paid, valued and trained to embrace the rapid changes that innovation brings, if health systems are truly fit-for-purpose to avail of these opportunities.: The bottom line is that health systems—and remember that systems are created and delivered by people—need to show they are trustworthy. The concrete case for investment needs to be in place for policymakers to back.: In December this year, health workers and ministers, academics, politicians, together with experts from the WHO and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, will be meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, to discuss trust and the transformation ahead—with people at the very centre.: Because systems do not transform themselves. People transform systems, and that can only be done in a climate of trust and co-creation.: The principles underlying Tallinn 2023—building on the groundbreaking Tallin Charter of 2008—are from the European Programme of Work, 2020–5 and its vision for a profound transformation of health systems and social care in the Region, with the vision of a digital, innovative, outcomes-directed and people-centred future.: The Charter was the product of a very different era. Our current day and age is marked by geopolitics more fluid than ever, galloping inflation and cost-of-living indices, extreme weather events triggering ever-mounting calamities, an infodemic marring social interactions. And of course, we are emerging from a pandemic labelled the biggest global crisis since World War Two.: Yet, our current day and age is also one of unprecedented opportunity.: Scientific and medical advances we—let alone the previous generation—could hardly have foreseen even a few years ago. IT and digital health marvels that have the potential to transform health and well-being. A world in which youth constitute one out of every three persons—a demographic reality that can be harnessed for a better future, if we allow it.: Amid our present reality, if we are to reform and make our health systems resilient enough to meet future health threats; if we are to galvanize regional support for the values espoused back in 2008, reinstating trust is the prerequisite."