Germany to take on vice-chairmanship of the OECD Health Ministerial Meeting
17 January 2017. Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe had co-chaired the Health Ministerial Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 16 to 17 January.
The health ministers of the 35 OECD Member States as well as representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union, the World Bank and the International Social Security Association (ISSA) had come together to jointly address current health policy challenges. Their focus had been on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), patient safety, demographic change and the uses of new technologies in the health care system.
This year, the meeting had been under the chairmanship of Britain’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Addressing the plenary, Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe had singled out two central issues that must be awarded greater attention in the OECD context: the fight against AMR and intensifying the global exchange on patient safety.
From 29 to 30 March 2017, Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe will host the second Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Bonn. Patient safety is a key health care priority in Germany and a major concern of European health policy. All stakeholders in the health care system, politics, the medical profession, hospitals and health insurance funds, patient groups and industry are agreed that patient safety is a key consideration in advancing the health care system.