"Patients should be supported, not blamed." This was stated by various representatives of civil society organizations and European institutions at the 12th meeting of the European Day of Patients' Rights, held on 23 May at the European Parliament in Brussels.
The conference on "Implementing Therapy: Assessing the Impact on Patients and the Health Care System" brought together about 100 representatives from 16 European countries. Albania was represented by "Together for Life", which was attended by Eglantina Bardhi, Executive director, and Arlinda Shehu, program manager.
In this conference, the attendees stressed once again the importance of the health system functioning with the patient at its center, with an approach to the patient, and not the disease.
"Implementation of therapy cannot be achieved if patients do not have an active role," said Martin Seychell, Deputy Director General for Health and Consumer Affairs at the European Commission.
Meanwhile, José Inácio Faria, a member of the European Parliament, said that half of people do not receive proper treatment. According to him, 50% of cardiovascular diseases are due to ill-treatment.
"There are countries where the elderly are so poor that they have to wonder if they will buy medicine or food. "And of course the answer to this is known," said the European parliamentarian.
The same was supported by the Italian parliamentarian, Elena Gentile, who stressed that the elderly are the part of society that suffers most from lack of information, but also from falling prey to inaccurate health information, abandoning in this form even proper treatment.
Representatives of the Italian association "Cittadinanza attiva" stressed the need for closer cooperation of all actors in the health system, especially doctors and patients, as a way to give the best possible result in the quality treatment of patients.
Meanwhile, the representatives of the association "Together for Life" raised the already huge problem of leaving doctors and nurses from Albania, while emphasizing the great efforts being made by civil society to put pressure on the government to improve conditions in the sector health.
The conference was organized by the European network "Active Citizenship Network", where the association "Together for Life" is part of three years.
