10 November 2022

Dear Iveta, expensive Reinhard, excellencies, colleagues and associates, 

It can be an understatement to say that a lot has occurred since all of us final met in individual in Marseille in 2019. Let me start by saluting you all – everybody gathered right here – the various previous associates, and the various younger professionals; the complete
public well being workforce and the frontline well being employees, who’ve made large private sacrifices over the previous two and a half years. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a watershed second within the historical past of public well being on our continent. Governments and public well being authorities have needed to make tough decisions and take daring actions to avoid wasting individuals’s lives and shield the susceptible.

We acted quick, and we acted firmly. And due to your braveness and knowledge (you too, Professor Lauterbach) and your unflinching dedication to comply with the science, we have now saved lives.

Yet tragically around the globe over six and a half million individuals have died – 2.1 million of these in our area alone. The ripple results of the pandemic shall be felt for many years. Consider – we now face an unprecedented psychological well being disaster
that affects at the very least 1 in 6 individuals in Europe, and costing EU governments at the very least 600 billion euros a 12 months. 

Last week in Greece, we listened to younger individuals who spoke about their lived expertise with psychological well being points, made worse by the pandemic and its aftermath. Responding to this public well being problem, and others – not least lengthy COVID –
would require concerted motion from the very best political ranges to the grassroots of society. 

And but, strengthening our well being methods in response to the pandemic will not be the one problem we should deal with. 

A devastating conflict, now in its ninth month, continues to trigger immeasurable struggling in Ukraine and throughout Europe. To date, there have been over 660 assaults on well being services and health-care employees, verified by WHO. This conflict makes the approaching winter
one of the difficult in latest occasions for all of us. 

In the approaching days, I’ll go for the fourth time this 12 months to Ukraine to the frontline, to face by individuals and well being employees within the face of what’s going to be a tough winter, to advocate and have interaction help for individuals’s bodily and psychological well being wants
within the newly liberated areas.

Throughout the Region, the vitality and cost-of-living disaster signifies that 1000’s of households might want to select between paying for vitality or different requirements; between staying heat and getting well being care. 

And as we speak this vitality disaster is being compounded by a world local weather disaster that impacts public well being and public well being companies, and calls for pressing motion now. 

As we collect right here in Berlin to debate the way forward for well being methods, world leaders are additionally discussing methods to save our planet for the sake of our kids and grandchildren. 

All these challenges go hand in hand.

Dear colleagues, women and gents, 

I do know I danger sounding too alarmist, however we have now to simply accept the fact that we live in fixed disaster mode, in circumstances which are eroding the well being positive factors made by way of the painstaking work of many on this room, and people who laid the trail earlier than
us. 

And if we actually wish to get better and get again to enhancing the well being and well-being of our populations, we have to transfer from enterprise as regular, to a brand new paradigm in public well being: to a “dual-track approach”. 

In a world of ever-increasing well being crises, at a time of financial and monetary turmoil, we should settle for and work inside this new paradigm. 

This signifies that, on the one hand, we should make investments considerably in making ready for mounting and sometimes overlapping emergencies. In this regard, our work in establishing a pan-European community for illness management is a crucial advance. 

And alternatively, we should make sure that we redouble our efforts to forestall sickness, promote well being and strengthen day-to-day important well being companies. 

At WHO we’re firmly centered on this dual-track strategy, and we have now began taking concrete motion. 

Just yesterday right here in Berlin, we convened a gathering of the NCD Advisory Council on Innovation for Noncommunicable Diseases, and are gathering one of the best developments to sort out and cut back the burden of NCDs. 

Next 12 months, we’ll host a world major well being care convention in Kazakhstan, which is able to mark the forty fifth anniversary of the Alma-Ata Declaration – a agency dedication from governments to make sure that everybody, all over the place is ready to benefit from the highest
attainable requirements of well being. 

I’m glad to see that the Berlin Statement, which WHO/Europe strongly endorses, contains clear actions to advance this dual-track strategy. 

It does so firstly, by recognizing that well being methods have to be resilient and strong as a way to reply to emergencies and keep important companies. 

And secondly, by committing to succeed in past the well being sector – and work with financial, social and political companions to strengthen well being methods and enhance individuals’s well being. 

The Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development reached an analogous conclusion, and I have to thank former [European Public Health Association] EUPHA President and expensive good friend and colleague, Professor Martin McKee, for main the scientific
proof base that knowledgeable the Commission’s last report. 

This work shall be taken ahead as we put together for the High-level Forum on Health within the Well-being Economy to be held on 1–2 March subsequent 12 months.

Thirdly, the Berlin Statement acknowledges the important thing position performed by science and innovation in public well being, and the necessity to decide to extra and higher funding in analysis and growth. 

And it’s on this final level specifically that the general public well being workforce is available in. 

Prior to the pandemic, public well being professionals struggled to achieve visibility for his or her work. But the main focus now positioned on public well being has prompted well being methods and governments to replicate on how we will entice, retain and nurture the general public well being
workforce. 

At moments like as we speak, seeing you all gathered right here, dedicated and decided to make a distinction, I’m full of hope and optimism that the long run for public well being in Europe is vibrant. 

But we additionally have to acknowledge that it’s time to hone our management expertise, and put money into the general public well being leaders of the long run. With this aim in thoughts, WHO/Europe and the Istituto Superiore di Sanita are proper now – for the primary time –
delivering a Public Health Leadership Programme in Italy for public well being professionals like yourselves.

Dear colleagues and associates, 

The European Programme of Work, which guides WHO/Europe’s actions by way of to 2025, has two overarching aims:

To help and empower well being management – the rationale why I’m standing in entrance of you as we speak, to guarantee you that we’re firmly dedicated to supporting and advocating for funding in public well being on the highest ranges.

And to depart nobody behind – as a result of returning to the place I started, COVID-19 has impacted everybody, however significantly the weakest and most susceptible amongst us. As public well being professionals, we have now an ethical responsibility to work in direction of lowering well being gaps
and selling equitable entry to well being for all. 

As a last reflection, enable me to cite Rudolf Virchow, who labored right here in Berlin many many years in the past and who firmly believed that:

“Die Ärzte sind die natürlichen Anwälte der Armen und die sociale Frage fällt zu einem erheblichen Theil in ihre Jurisdiction.”

“Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them”.

Colleagues, this European Public Health Conference embodies the imaginative and prescient of delivering well being for all by way of the facility of partnership. There is nice energy within the collaboration we signify.

Although the challenges we face are daunting, we face them collectively, and we’ll overcome them by way of shut collaboration. 

Thank you on your dedication and willpower.