Public health: prevention of injury and promotion of safety 

 

PURPOSE: to set out a list of recommendations addressed to the Member States on the prevention of injuries and to set out Commission tasks supporting the prevention of injuries as well as the promotion of safety.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Recommendation.

CONTENT: this Recommendation is being proposed in order to help reduce the amount of injuries across the EU, which after cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases, is the fourth most common cause of death in the Member States. Unlike other diseases, however, injuries are preventable and experience shows that when proper measures are introduced the number of accidents and injuries can be reduced considerably.

This Recommendation is being proposed alongside a Commission Communication on “Actions for a Safer Europe”. In summary, it recommends that the Member States should:

-          Develop a national injury surveillance and reporting system in order to provide comparable information;

-          Set up national plans for preventing accidents and injuries;

-          Ensure that injury prevention and safety promotion be introduced in a systematic way for health care professionals.

For its part, the Recommendation asks the Commission to:

-          Within the framework of the “Community Public Health Programme” establish a Community-wide injury surveillance system collecting injury data provided by the Member States;

-          Establish a Community –wide mechanism for the exchange of information on good practice and disseminate this information to relevant stakeholders;

-          Provide Member States with the necessary evidence for inclusion of injury prevention know-how vis-à-vis health workers;

-          Support the development of good practice; and

-          Carry out an evaluation report four years after the adoption of this Recommendation to determine whether measures proposed are working effectively and to assess the need for further actions.