FINAL DOCUMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
A year after Florence, the European Network for the right to health strongly emphasises again the need for the movement to consider health care as a social right, universal and not commercial.
In Paris we have transformed a charter of intents, like the one set out at the European Forum of Salonicco, into a platform for the right against the privatisation and the destruction of the national public Health care System.
We demand that access to the services is free, that it meets the needs of health care of the population, and that is not linked to any form of corporate profit.
We ask that the Health care Service is adequately financed in order to grant to everyone, without discrimination: the promotion of health, the welfare, the respect for the issues of gender, the protection at work and in life, the cures, the attention to the psychiatric problems, the rehabilitation of those affected from any kind of infirmity, the humanisation of the process of care and the respect of the individuals at any time between health care system and citizen.
We want a transparent European policy on medicine, independent from industry and under popular control.
We support the construction of social networks, which have as primary aim the recognition of the rights of citizens to participate in the decision and the control of all aspects of the health care process.
We want a reorganisation of the National Health care Service – especially considering the ongoing transformations in Europe and in the countries of the area � that respects and assures dignified working conditions and adequate training of the healthcare workers, as indispensable pre-conditions for the quality of the services offered.
We are against the treaty for the European constitution which doesn�t include, together with other fundamental rights, the principle of the right to health as a fundamental right, regardless of profits.
We believe that building a common process that unifies the workers, the citizens, the associations, the trade unions and the movements, constitute an essential element to claim the unalienable right to health.
We think that to reach such aims it is indispensable to enlarge and consolidate the local, national and international networks.
We propose to the movements to mobilise for two campaigns:
- to increase public funds to be spent for the health system, in order to provide the entire healthcare needs of the population;
- to grant the access to the Public Healthcare Service without restrictions
We propose to organise on December 1st a European day to raise the awareness on the issues linked to the privatisation of the Healthcare Service, and we declare our determination to participate as a network to the European day of mobilisation that the Assembly of the Social Movement will organise against the privatisation of all Public Services giving our contribution in respect of the struggle about the specificity of health
Paris 15.11.2003
International Association of Health Policy 