EU : cross-border projects in public health

All European borders suffer from a lack of co-operation in public health.
Living near to an other Member State, infact, is for the time being quite a nightmare for some practical problems. For example, you can?t benefit from hospitals of the other side of the border, being only eligible to the services of your own territory, except on holidays. In this case, you have to pay extra charges. A European network of training and research on cross-border practices is taking the lead to resolve this issue with the backing of the European INTERACT and INTERFORM programmes.

The analysis of relevant complementarities for a cross-border health co-operation is the first step to put forward told Ewald Eisenberg, Professor at the Kehl Fachhochschule. The work has to be built around a case-study to test the project management methodogy already prepared with the support of the EU funding. The “intercultural dimension” needs as well to be taken in account to gain trust among the population from both sides.

Test seminars are organized to bring together researchers, training professionals and field practioners on a wide range of project examples, including joint prevention campaigns, joint emergency services and cross-border health observatories. According to Alsatia hospital managers, the challenges to overcome lie more in the financial package and arrangements to be agreed than in the organization of inter-hospital practical collaboration.

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