Public health: Community action programme 1997-2001 on health monitoring

In adopting the report by Mr Danilo POGGIOLINI (PPE,I), Parliament approved the proposal for a decision with the following amendments: - in order to complement this programme, healthcare authorities and providers should set measurable, time-based targets for health improvement, - the total budgetary appropriation should be ECU 20 m instead of ECU 13.8 m; - the Commission should be assisted by an advisory committee whose meetings would in principle be public (publication of its agendas and minutes); - in the course of implementing this programme, cooperation should be developed with health professionals and NGOs active in the field; - in the course of implementing this programme, reports should be submitted on the results of the Community health programmes, and the results of the implementation of the programme should be sent to all the EC institutions and Member States; - in the Annex to the programme, emphasis should be put on better monitoring and control of Community public health and on the cooperation of Member States in this area, - it proposed a non-exhaustive list of health indicators which might be established under a future Community health monitoring system. This list contained inter alia indicators relating to health status, life-style and health habits, living and working conditions, health protection, demographic and social factors, etc.; - the collection of data should be made comparable by the harmonization of definitions and methods of collecting national health data, and this comparability should be guaranteed by the Member States. Moreover, financial support should be granted to the Member States in connection with the establishment or improvement of their health data collection systems; - it also called for the carrying out of feasibility studies on setting up a European Health Observatory responsible for monitoring health data and indicators in the Community area, and for the development of a Community network for transferring and sharing health data; - finally, it called for the drafting of reports on health status and health systems in the Union and their cost-effectiveness and the dissemination of these reports to the Member States, the NGOs, health professionals and the general public. �