In Brussels, Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe and his counterparts from France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and Mexico met the Deputy Director of Europol Will van Gemert, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Peter Salama and EU Health Commissioner Dr. Vytenis Andriukaitis.
A main topic at the conference are the new challenges in the field of civil protection caused by deliberate false information (“fake news”), which can contribute to additional stress on the emergency services and to uncertainty among the population. Joint exercises should therefore be an integral part of the cooperation.
In a further focus, the ministers will speak with Dr. Peter Salama on the implementation of the WHO’s “Health Emergencies Programme”, which is intended to improve the WHO’s response to international health emergencies in the future through clearly defined rules, processes and responsibilities.
On the fringes of the ministerial meeting, Hermann Gröhe took the opportunity to talk to his British colleague Nicola Blackwood about patient safety. An international ministerial summit, the Patient Safety Summit, will also be held on March 29 and 30 on this topic, where joint efforts to improve patient safety can be deepened.
The next regular ministerial meeting of the Global Health Security Initiative will take place in London in 2018.