Better Care for All, Every Time - A Call to Action

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Apr 30, 2012
by Louise Hallman
Better Care for All, Every Time - A Call to Action

Salzburg Statement: How to Improve Health in Low and Middle Income Economies

Click the links at the bottom of the page to download and support the statement

Low and middle income countries have major health challenges: many countries are not on track to attain their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), non-communicable diseases are emerging as the primary cause of mortality for the future, and little progress has been made in addressing unsafe care that harms millions each year.

Despite significant improvements life expectancy and in some aspects of health care in the last two decades, daunting challenges remain to be solved in these countries. The Salzburg Global Seminar “Making Health Care Better in Low and Middle Income Economies” brought together global health leaders and practitioners who believe that a change in the health care paradigm is needed to help countries to address the critical gap between knowledge of interventions that improve population health and the care actually provided to patients –Quality Improvement (QI) is one approach that can be applied to rapidly improve health system performance and outcomes. QI is a proven, data driven method that places the responsibility and knowledge for rapid change in the hands of every patient, provider, manager and leader.

58 health officials and representatives of leading health agencies from 33 countries, participants of the Salzburg Global Seminar, are now urging all health policy leaders, patients, communities, health care workers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development partners, and governments to endorse recommendations that could drive a new approach to solving health challenges in these countries. We call on:

  1. Governments to be accountable for the improvement of healthcare through legislation, policies and necessary resources
  2. Health policy leaders to adopt and promote quality improvement as a cornerstone of better health for all
  3. Communities to actively advocate for quality health care as part of their rights and responsibilities
  4. Development partners to invest in approaches that drive sustainable context-specific improvements in global health
  5. Non-governmental organizations and those providing technical assistance in global health to incorporate evidence-based improvement methods in their work
  6. Health care workers to continuously improve the delivery of expert and compassionate care to patients, their families and communities
  7. Patients to be empowered and at the forefront of promoting a shared vision for better health for all.

Sir Liam Donaldson, World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Envoy, said: “The Salzburg Seminar brought powerful and original insights about how they might contribute to strengthening health care systems in middle and low income countries. The unique character of the Seminars and the free-thinking nature of the discussions have yielded ideas that are important and durable.”

Sir Liam and Dr. Nils Daulaire, Director of the Office of Global Health Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will help lead a special session at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May to present the joint statement to Ministers of Health and health leaders from over 140 countries.

A small group of experts from USAID, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), University of North Carolina, the WHO Patient Safety Programme, HEALTHQUAL International, Heidelberg University, and SGS, led by Dr Rashad Massoud from University Research Corporation (URC), organized the seminar. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Salzburg Scholarships, URC, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), WHO Patient Safety, IHI, Atlantic Philanthropies, Nippon Foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded the meeting.

Click here for the full text of the Salzburg Statement

A PDF of the Salzburg Statement, for printing, and distribution, is available here and in French translation here.