Health systems resilience can be understood as the health systems’ ability to maintain or improve its performance in the face of a shock, so that the ultimate health systems goals, especially that of improving health of the population, can be achieved. In this session we attempt to summarise key strategies that enabled health systems in Europe to respond resiliently to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies grouped these strategies according to the core health system functions, and this session will focus on the financing, resource generation, and service delivery functions. For each of these functions, we will illustrate practical examples of resilience and discuss what we can learn from the national experiences so far for post pandemic recovery and preparedness for future shocks. We will close by drawing attention to the key role of health systems and broader governance, underpinned by strong state capacity, political leadership, and community engagement, in responding resiliently to major shocks such as COVID-19. 

This session draws on the study by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies ‘Health systems resilience during COVID-19: Lessons for building back better’ and on the content compiled in the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM), which tracks policy responses to the pandemic in the WHO European Region. 

Join the session on Wednesday, 15 September at 15.15 and discuss the lessons learned from COVID-19 and health systems resilience with esteemed speakers: Dr Josep Figueras, Director, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; Dr Erica Richardson, Research Fellow, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; Anna Sagan, Research Fellow, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; Erin Webb, Research Fellow, Technical University of Berlin; Ruth Waitzberg, Research Fellow, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; Gemma Williams, Research Fellow, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. 

Join EHMA 2021, the preeminent European conference on health management, meet with experts from Europe and beyond, and be part of shaping the future of health management.