| Health Policy | ||||||
|
Themes |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Work of the
Council of Europe in the blood transfusion area started in the 50�s. The
Committees in charge of questions related to blood transfusion are the
Committee on Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology (SP-HM) and the
Committee on Quality Assurance in Blood Transfusion Services (SP-R-GS).
These Committees built the programme on blood transfusion around three major
principles: the non-commercialisation of substances of human origin by
voluntary and non-remunerated donation, the goal to achieve self-sufficiency
and the protection for both the donors and the recipients. With these objectives in mind, the Council of Europe concentrated on: studying the ethical, legal and organisational aspects of blood transfusion with a view to ensuring quality, increasing availability of blood, avoiding wastage of human substances, ensuring optimal use and analysing the possible ethical and organisational impact of new scientific developments. |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
The Council of Europe focused on several aspects of health
policy, such as the media awareness of their responsibility to provide the
right information at the right time, or the quality improvement of health
services and policies. Changes of society were also taken into account
through an exam of the multicultural societies now existing in most member
States and of their way to recognise in health services and institutions the
different concepts of health, illness, death and provision of care as
influenced by different cultures and origins. |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Organ
transplantation is a life-saving operation which should be accessible for
all who need it. Today, organ transplantation is the best available
established technique for the treatment of failure of most essential organs,
such as liver, kidney, heart and lungs. With the development of new modern
techniques, many patients can now expect long and high quality life. The
importance and demand for transplantation of tissues and cells is also
growing. From the Council of Europe perspective, promoting organ donation and transplantation is an important part of human rights. Improving transplantation systems means assuring a right to healthcare, and a right to life. |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The concept of citizen and patient participation in the decision-making process has been developing at all levels of society in order to make health services more responsive to the needs of users and more democratic. Patients and citizens are becoming more demanding concerning their own needs and the quality of health care they receive. More and more people are aware of the need to be better informed. |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
| The issue of palliative care extends well beyond the patient to include family members and care - givers. It also extends beyond the physical suffering to embrace the whole area of the quality of life of the patient. The Council of Europe took therefore into consideration palliative care in the wider context of the environment in which it is practised. | ||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
| Along the years several committees of experts worked in order to create a European standard of health policy in favour of the vulnerable groups of society, such as: chronically ill persons, elderly people, marginalised populations, prisoners or single parents' families. | ||||||
