International conference on "The Future of Healthcare. Innovation through EU Funding"
Innovation is key to providing adequate and affordable health services, and Romania's passing new legislation on public procurements represents a step forward in this area, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Romania Stella Ronner-Grubacic told the international conference on opportunities for the development of Romania's health system "The Future of Healthcare. Innovation through EU Funding."
According to available figures and surveys, we already have a modern and efficient health system in the Netherlands and we permanently strive to innovate. We do this because we firmly believe that innovation is key to ensuring adequate and affordable health care. The Netherlands considers this can be achieved by bringing together the public and the private sector. Political decision-makers, patients, medical and business professionals, all these factors need to engage in dialogue and seek together an optimal way to achieve an efficient and proper health system, said Stella Ronner-Grubacic.
The ambassador highlighted the importance of ensuring as high as possible quality for the money invested of the medical system.
The passage of the new legislation on Romania's public procurements is important. Important changes and productive principles have been introduced. I would like to mention the concept market consultation - that also exists in the Netherlands - that precedes the launch of bidding for complex projects. Thus, one makes sure the contracting authority knows what technical solutions are available on the market. In case of fast technological progress, these consultations provide the necessary information for adopting the optimum solution for the fair price. It's good to see that the market consultation principle can now be implemented in Romania too, because it is key to the early adoption of innovation and it can often help increase quality for lower prices, said the Dutch diplomat.
Stella Ronner-Grubacic also mentioned the EU funding made available to member states for the improvement of their health system, emphasizing the importance of introducing in the EU of the European health consumer index.
According to president of the Netherlands Romanian Chamber of Commerce Sebastian van Hese, Thursday's conference is intended to create a platform for dialogue with all major actors in the health sector for finding innovative solutions capable of rendering the health system more efficient.
Attending the meeting organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bucharest and the Netherlands Romanian Chamber of Commerce were, among others, state advisor with the Presidential Administration's Public Health Department Diana Loreta Paun, Secretary of State with the Ministry of Health Corina Pop, and Secretary of State for European Funds Ciprian Necula.