Proceedings
Fourth International Meeting of the European Platform for Supervisory Organizations (EPSO)
24-25 October 2002
Gardermoen, Norway
Participants
Dr Hilde de Nutte
Dr Jan Vesseur
Mr Matt Tee
Dr Jørgen Hansen
Dr Pirjo Pennanen
Dr Ulla Fryksmark
Mr Gunnar Östling
Mr Per Haugum
Ms Linda Grytten
Ms Astri Teien
Ms Jo Kittelsen
Mr Jostein Ingulfsen
Prof Lars Hanssen
Apologies:
Prof dr J. Herre Kingma
Dr Geir Sverre Braut
(For a detailed list of participants, see List of Participants, page 6)
Programme
Thursday 24 October
1800 Getting to know each other. History of EPSO. Topics for discussion.
1930 Dinner
Friday 25 October
0900 Proposal for statutes of EPSO. Discussion of possible formal obstacles
1030 Coffee break
1100 Specific topics for future work
1200 Lunch
1300 Plenary session
1400 Closing of the meeting
Proceedings of the Meeting
Thursday 24 October
Introductory session. 18.00-19.30
The introductory session was led by Dr Jan Vesseur.
History of EPSO:
EPSO was founded in 1996.
The First International Meeting of EPSO was held in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, 1214June1996. The aim of the meeting was to establish a European network of officials who have a duty to supervise and monitor the quality of health care in their countries. It was decided that a meeting of EPSO should be held once a year, and that the Dutch Inspectorate for Health Care would provide the chair and the secretariat for five years (1996-2000).
The Second International Meeting was held in Lisbon, Portugal, 1314November1997. The meeting had two aims: first, to give the representatives the possibility to present the situation in which they were working: responsibilities, tasks etc; second, to identify issues relevant to the international context of the supervisory organizations.
The Third International Meeting was held in Stavanger, Norway, 34June1999. Topics discussed were risk analysis and quality improvement. The meeting had a tragic end, with the sudden death of Jitze Verhoeff of the Dutch Inspectorate of Health Care, the founder of EPSO. The next meeting was planned for October 2000.
For a detailed account of the previous meetings, see the Proceedings of the First, Second and Third International Meetings of EPSO.
There have been no activities of EPSO since the meeting in Stavanger.
Topics for discussion
The following topics for discussion were outlined by Dr Vesseur:
What is EPSO?
What shall EPSO do? What are the aims of the organization?
This meeting represents the start of discussions and some activities – to explore subjects that reflect our problems.
The plan for day two involved proposals for statutes and working groups on relevant topics.
In 2004, the Netherlands shall chair the European Union. They are keen to put supervision of health services on the agenda.
The introductory session continued and ended with a round of introduction by the participants.
Friday 24 October
Proposal for Statutes
Dr Jan Vesseur asked the participants who will be responsible for signing the statutes in the different countries:
The Netherlands: Inspector General, Health Care Inspectorate
Belgium: Director General, Department of Health
Sweden: Director General, National Board of Health and Welfare
UK: Chairman, Commission for Health Improvement
Finland: Chief Medical Officer
or: Director General, National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs
Denmark: Chief Medical Officer, National Board of Health
Norway: Director General of Health, Norwegian Board of Health
The opinion of the members was that although the number of potential members is large, the aim should be to restrict the Platform to a small group. The members should represent central supervisory agencies that have similar problems. The strength of the Platform is that it is a small, intimate group that provides an arena for the discussion of common issues and problems. Participation in the Platform becomes of less interest for members if it becomes large and formal. The aim should be, not to address all the problems related to supervision, but to address the problems experienced by the participating organizations. It was agreed that the northern European countries have the most in common. The Platform should focus on how to get better at what the organizations do, rather than how they could do things differently.
The suggestions for changes to the draft statutes have been incorporated in the revised version of the statutes. The revised version will be offered to next the Chief Medical Officer (EU) meeting with the question to agree with it.
Topics for Future Work
The following topics for future work were identified:
1. Risky health professionals
2. Education of supervision personnel
3. Overview of organizations involved in supervision and their responsibilities
4. Development of supervision methodology
5. The relationship between control and advising
6. Root cause analysis of incidents
7. Developing a web-site for EPSO
8. Quality indicators
9. Financial effectiveness of health care institutions
10. Accreditation/certification of health care institutions
Four of these topics were chosen to be given priority:
1. Risky health professionals
Describe the problem
Legal obstacles for solving problems such as health professionals who loose their authorization, but then work abroad
Responsibility: Per Haugum
2. Education of supervision personnel
The comprehensiveness of training is variable in the different countries.
Responsibility: Norway
3. Overview of organizations involved in supervision and their responsibilities
Who is responsible for the different elements of supervision? Who does what?
At what level are the different supervision organizations?
What level of independence do the different supervision organizations have?
How are they funded?
Responsibility: Jørgen Larsen
4. Root cause analysis of incidents
Reports of accidents/incidents
Management of incident reports
Reporting systems. No blame systems, anonymous reporting.
Improvements made locally
How are complaints and insurance cases dealt with?
Responsibility: Ulla Fryksmark
It was decided that those who have responsibility for the working groups will take the initiative to the start the work of the group and to ensure its progress. They invite members and compile the group. EPSO member countries can indicate their interest to participate in a working group. The groups themselves are responsible for deciding how they will work. The working groups shall regularly report the status of work on the topics to the chair.
The four topics that have been given priority shall be presented at the 5th International Meeting of EPSO. A report from the working groups shall be sent to the members in advance, so that the members have time to assess the reports before the meeting.
Chair for the Next Meeting
The members were of the opinion that it is an advantage for EPSO if the Netherlands can continue as chair until the statutes have been approved and signed. It is also an advantage for the Netherlands to be chair when they become chair of the European Union in 2004. The Netherlands wishes to have supervision of health services on the agenda for the EU.
Dr Jan Vesseur shall clarify the matter of chair for EPSO with Dr Herre Kingma.
The meeting closed with lunch at 1200.
List of Participants
The Netherlands
Dr Jan Vesseur
Senior Inspector of Health Care
Public Health Supervisory Service of the Netherlands.
Health Care Inspectorate
Pels Rijckenstraat 1
P.O. Box 9013
6800 DR Arnhem
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 26 352 8250
E-mail:
Prof dr J. Herre Kingma (not present at the meeting)
Inspector General
Public Health Supervisory Service of the Netherlands.
Health Care Inspectorate
P.O. Box 16119
2500 BC The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 70 3405655
E-mail:
Belgium
Dr Hilde de Nutte
Ministry of Flemish Community
Markiesstraat 1
1000 Brussel
Belgium
Tel: + 32 2 553 36 41
E-mail:
The United Kingdom
Mr Matt Tee
Director of Communications
Commission for Health Improvement (CHI)
10th Floor, Finsbury Tower
103-105 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8TG
England
Tel: +44 20 7448 92222
e-mail:
Denmark
Dr Jørgen Hansen
National Board of Health
Denmark
e-mail:
Finland
Dr Pirjo Pennanen
Senior Medical Officer
National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs
P.O. Box 265
00531 Helsinki
Finland
Tel: +358 9 7729 2121
e-mail:
Sweden
Dr Ulla Fryksmark
Director
National Board of Health and Welfare
Regional Office, Gothenburg
Mail Vasagatan 45
SE-411 37 Gothenburg
Sweden
Tel: +46 31 759 59 00/06
e-mail:
Mr Gunnar Östling
Senior Administrative Officer
National Board of Health and Welfare
Division of the Regional Supervision Authority at Jönkjöping
P.O. Box 2163
SE-550 02 Jönkjöping
Sweden
Tel: +46 36 30 94 00/14
e-mail:
Norway
Mr Per Haugum
Director
Norwegian Registration Authority for Health Personnel (SAFH)
P.O. Box 8053 Dep
N-0031 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 90 35
e-mail:
Ms Linda Grytten
Adviser
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 88 47
E-mail:
Ms Astri Teien
Adviser
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 89 75
E-mail:
Ms Jo Kittelsen
Assistant director
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 90 32
E-mail:
Mr Jostein Ingulfsen
Adviser
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 89 85
E-mail:
Prof Lars Hanssen
Director General of Health
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 88 00
E-mail:
Dr Geir Sverre Braut (not present at the meeting)
Deputy Director General of Health
Norwegian Board of Health
P.O. Box 8182 Dep
N-0032 OSLO
Norway
Tel: +47 22 24 88 02
E-mail:
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