PHA-Exchange> IAHP conference & ESF network for health

[Alexis Benos]

Dear friends,
1. the next IAHP conference will be held in South Africa the 6, 7 and 8 th
June 2004
Conference theme
Challenging health inequalities - forging progressive partnerships for
public health

Subthemes:
Health inequalities: global and local factors
Implementing health policies through progressive partnerships
International cooperation in health policies

The Conference is organised by:
International Association of Health Policy
Public Health Association of South Africa
Medical Research Council
Health Systems Trust

Organising Committee
Professor Noddy Jinabhai chairperson
Professor William Pick (PHASA Chairperson)
Assoc. Professor Alexis Benos (IAHP Chairpesron)
Professor David Sanders (IAHP & SoPH, UWC)
Mandy Salomo (Medical Research Council, MRC)
Jaine Roberts (Health Systems Trust, HST)
Hazel Bradley (Public Health Association of South Africa)
The 8th of June the participants will have the opportunity to join the
EQUINET Conference which starts this day in Durban.
registration & abstracts submission: www.healthp.org

2. The European Network for the rigth to health met in Paris ESF and
produced the following document:
FINAL DOCUMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE RIGHT TO HEALTH


A year after Florence, the European Network for the right to healthcare
strongly emphasises again the need for the movement to consider healthcare
as a social right, universal and not commercial.

In Paris we have transformed a charter of intents, like the one set out at
the European Forum of Salonicco, into a platform for the right against the
privatisation and the destruction of the national public Healthcare System.

We demand that access to the services is free, that it meets the needs of
healthcare of the population, and that is not linked to any form of
corporate profit.

We ask that the Healthcare Service is adequately financed in order to grant
to everyone, without discrimination: the promotion of health, the welfare,
the respect for the issues of gender, the protection at work and in life,
the cures, the attention to the psychiatric problems, the rehabilitation of
those affected from any kind of infirmity, the humanisation of the process
of care and the respect of the individuals at any time between healthcare
system and citizen.

We want a transparent European policy on medicine, independent from industry
and under popular control.

We support the construction of social networks, which have as primary aim
the recognition of the rights of citizens to participate in the decision and
the control of all aspects of the healthcare process.

We want a reorganisation of the National Healthcare Service - especially
considering the ongoing transformations in Europe and in the countries of
the area - that respects and assures dignified working conditions and
adequate training of the healthcare workers, as indispensable pre-conditions
for the quality of the services offered.

We are against the treaty for the European constitution, which doesn't
include, together with other fundamental rights, the principle of the right
to healthcare as a fundamental right, regardless of profits.

We believe that building a common process that unifies the workers, the
citizens, the associations, the trade unions and the movements, constitute
an essential element to claim the unalienable right to healthcare.

We think that to reach such aims it is indispensable to enlarge and
consolidate the local, national and international networks.

We propose to the movements to mobilise for two campaigns:

1.      to increase public funds to be spent for the health system, in order
to provide the entire healthcare needs of the population;

2.      to grant the access to the Public Healthcare Service without
restrictions

We propose to organise on December 1st a European day to raise the awareness
on the issues linked to the privatisation of the Healthcare Service, and we
declare our determination to participate as a network to the European day of
mobilisation that the Assembly of the Social Movement will organise against
the privatisation of all Public Service giving our contribution in respect
of the struggle about the specificity of health

 the site of the netowrk is http://www.forumdifesasalute.too.it/


Paris 15.11.2003



warm season's greetings,

Alexis Benos