World Health Day was held on April 7th, 2018. This yearly event, founded by the World Health Organization, aims to encourage dialogue about the importance of Universal health coverage (UHC) while pointing out the inequalities to healthcare access that currently exist in the world and even across Europe.
Vytenis Andriukaitis, the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, released an official statement on this day where he outlined the various EU initiatives involved in acheiving the goal of accessible, affordable and quality healthcare for all.
He specifically mentioned how the European Reference Networks are contributing to this goal by facilitating the diagnosis, treatment and provision of affordable, cost-effective and high-quality healthcare for all rare disease patients across Europe by stating the following:
“Making sure that every single person in the EU has access to health care should be the priority for all national authorities. In this context the continued growth of European Reference Networks will also increase the cooperation across our health systems. These virtual networks facilitate access to specialised healthcare for patients suffering from rare and low prevalence complex diseases.”
Read the full statement here