Priority Axis 3: Cooperating for healthier and more inclusive programme area

Specific objective: RSO4.5. Ensuring equal access to health care and fostering resilience of health systems, including primary care, and promoting the transition from institutional to family-based and community-based care

Intro
Programme area has a substantial but inefficient network of healthcare institutions, which often cannot provide satisfactory and equal access to services for the patients. Border areas in particular suffer from poor access to health care, especially in cases where hospital care in one’s own country is further away than the healthcare across the border.
Programme will promote the transition from institutional and hospital-centred model to family-based and community-based care and support primary and integrated health care models. Support to residential care facilities could be considered if investments are compliant with the certain conditions such as: they contribute to the EU’s relevant policy objectives as expressed in the European Pillar of Social Rights, and is fully in line with the requirements of the UNCRPD (including the principles of equality, freedom of choice, the right to independent living, accessibility and prohibiting all forms of segregation), they do not undermine de-institutionalisation process, they upgrade the standards and quality of existing institutions, they respect the highest standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms and are fully in line with the national strategies/plans.

Types of actions
The programme aims to contribute to accessibility and effectiveness of the health care and social care system in the border areas by improving infrastructure, skills and organisation of health care and social care in the programme area. Examples of cross-border actions to be supported (non-exhaustive lists):

  1. Development and implementation of ICT solutions and (pilot) actions to support digitalization in health and social care
  2. Improving access to health and social care services for vulnerable and marginalised groups such as children (e.g. children deprived of parental care), elderly, persons with disabilities through investments in individual social housing, equipment, transport means, etc.
  3. Improving the accessibility and effectiveness of cross-border public health care services by investing in telemedicine, diagnostics, mobile clinics/infirmaries and mobile assets, including small scale infrastructure preferring nature-based solutions
  4. Transfer of knowledge through exchange of experience, awareness raising, lifelong learning, education and training programmes, and capacity building through online and in-situ trainings to improve skills in the field of health care and social care and enhance the delivery of primary care and family-based and community-based care services
  5. Developing and implementing joint activities/solutions to promote healthy lifestyles, active and healthy aging, disease prevention.

Allocation: 6,960,301 €

Main target groups
The programme will directly target health/social-care providers and institutions and organisations that can support them or their patience in the health/social-care access. Therefore, the expected target groups are:
– public institutions dealing with health care, long-term care and social care (e.g. hospitals, clinics, health care centres/facilities, social care centres, homes and centres for elderly),
– education and research institutions,
– national/regional/local public authorities and bodies governed by public law,
– regional and local development agencies,
– civil society organisations active in promoting health care and/or social care or assisting patients in accessing it, especially patients from vulnerable groups,
– organisations providing family-based and community-based care.