Date: 13 - 14 March 2008

Venue: Brdo Congress Centre, Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia

Attendance: 40 participants. By invitation only.

The informal meeting of high representatives of ministries of health is held twice a year and is intended for the exchange of information and for reporting and discussion on current events in the area of health and healthcare. The meeting is also attended by representatives of the World Health Organisation Office for Europe, the Council of Europe and the European Commission, Directorate General for Health and Consumer Safety. This time part of the meeting will be held together with national representatives for antimicrobial resistance.

(14. March, Brdo pri Kranju)

On 13 and 14 March 2008 EU Chief Medical Officers' Meeting was held within the framework of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of EU, hosted by prim. Janez Remškar, Director-General of Health Care System Directorate at the Ministry of Health. The meeting was exceptionally successful in relation to the content and organization.

The highest-level representatives of Member States in the field of health exchanged a lot of information on the current situation in the field of public health and health system reforms. Especially interesting mutual discussion of participants referred to the field of patient safety, children’s health, anti-tobacco legislation, fight against cancer, education of health care personnel and other important issues.

Important messages were also presented by the representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe and the Council of Europe. The WHO Regional Office for Europe was represented by Dr Mark Danzon, Regional Director, and his deputy, Dr Nata Menabde, while Dr Piotr Mierzewski presented the report for the Council of Europe.  

Part of the EU Chief Medical Officers’ Meeting was held together with national focal points for antimicrobial resistance, namely in cooperation with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), who also met at a separate meeting on 13 March 2008. The conclusions of the joint meeting were presented to the participants at the end of the meeting by Mrs Marija Seljak, Director-General of Public Health Directorate within the Ministry of Health. Because antimicrobial resistance presents a serious health risk in fight against infectious diseases and because it is an important topic, with which in addition to Slovenia also the next two presiding states shall deal, the meeting of the experts and health policy-makers was very useful.

Presentations

Dominique L. Monnet (ECDC)   - Briefing on 4th Meeting of Antimicrobial Resistance National Focal Points (Ljubljana Slovenia),13 March 2008
 
Vincent Houdry (EC, DG SANCO C3, Health Threats Unit) - Europe and the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance

Herman Goossens (Belgium) - Trends in Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance in Europe and the First Annual Antibiotic Day

Prof. Milan Čižman (Intersectoral Coordination Mechanism) - Recommendation on prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine – Slovenian experiences

Prof. Benoît SCHLEMMER (France)- National Public Campaigns on AMR and Rational Antibiotic Use France 2001-2008

Vlastimil Jindrák  (Czech Republic)-  National antibiotic program in the Czech Republic NAP-CZ

Otto Cars (Sweden) - The Swedish Experience

Marija Seljak (Slovenia) - Joint Meeting of CMO and AMR-NFP, Discussion and Conclusions