Working Party on Accidents and Injuries

Transcription

1 Department of Hygiene & Epidemiology University of Athens CEREPRI Center for Research and Prevention of Injuries Secretariat of the Working Party on Accidents and Injuries Working Party on Accidents and Injuries December 8, 2005 Luxembourg, Wagner Building, Room Glesener Draft Minutes 1. Welcome The Chairman welcomed the participants to the meeting, making special reference to the other Directorate General EC officials present. 2. Adoption of the draft agenda The agenda was adopted. 3. Adoption of the minutes of the last meeting The minutes were adopted. 4. Information of Commission Status of projects 2004 A document listing the projects supported under the Public Health Programme and the old Public Health Programme was distributed. The Commission Services requested that all participants reference this document as well as notify the Commission if any errors are noted. Selected projects of the Call for Proposals 2005 The projects accepted for funding are listed in the document that was distributed. Work Plan 2006 Main points of the draft Work Plan for 2006 were presented. Participants were informed about the process to be followed, namely the Member State authorities have received the text and are currently reviewing it. The Programme Committee has scheduled a meeting on December 21, 2005 to discuss and adopt the Work Plan Following this meeting, the complete Work Plan will be available.

2 The Call for Proposal is expected to be published in January/February Information day and proposal submissions will take place in April /May 2006 followed by the evaluation process which should be completed before the summer holidays. Information was exchanged about the implementation of the health survey modules and the Workshop Health Surveys in Europe: The Role of Surveys in Monitoring organised by the Finnish Institution. Public health funds have been allocated to the implementation of these surveys in Member States. EuroStat of the European Commission has begun to develop a legislative framework for the collection of health and safety data, which would also make data collection mandatory in all Member States. If this proposal is accepted by the Commission, an extensive implementation process will follow. 5. Presentations of currently running projects All presentations have been posted on the EC website and WP-AI web-board IDB Robert Bauer presented the progress of the IDB project, which began in April 2004 and has been granted an extension until December Data collection is at two levels: home and leisure (old partners) and all injury data (new partners). The EU IDB is provisionally open to the public and can be accessed at: Some achievements to date include: data available for 2003/2004, all injury data collection is taking place in most new partner countries, and an All Injury Coding Help Desk is now operational. The project leader announced that by February/ March 2006, aggregated data will be accessible to the public, whereas individual data will not be. The United Kingdom is currently not participating in gathering data for this database, however, in the future this may change. To address the inquiry about injury indicators and the ECHI process, the Commission Services explained that the ECHI project was supported in several different phases and has now been completed. The short list of indicators is available on the website and is regularly updated. To deal with the long list, a Working Party has been established, which aims to set priorities and create ways of monitoring projects developing indicators. Work Package 2 (Burden of Injuries) of the APOLLO project also includes work on indicators. Child Safety Action Plan (CSAP) Morag MacKay presented the progress of the CSAP project outlining what has been accomplished to date, which includes the development of the outline for the Good Practice Guide and the next steps scheduled to be carried out. It was also noted that the European Child Safety Alliance has collaborated with the WHO Bonn office (for environment) initiative (also funded by the Commission) on the development of indicators to support the Child Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) in order that indicators relating to child safety are complimentary between the two initiatives.

3 The Commission Services inquired how the action indicator information was being collected and how will it be made operational. Morag MacKay replied that the action indicators were being collected by country partners and that it was likely that the same mechanism could be used in the future to assess progress if partners were again supported to collect the information. Emphasis was put on the necessity to ensure the sustainability of the project. Secretariat of the Working Party on Accidents and Injuries The recent progress of the Secretariat was presented outlining: a) the development of the Statistics Portal on Accidents and Injuries Data, which is now readily available with regards to mortality and CARE data; b) the experience and final evaluation of the Pre-event and the need to hand it over to the organisers of the 1 st EU Conference and; b) the future steps for the dissemination of the information with regards the WP-AI. Many new members were invited in the meeting and a general question was raised asking who the Working Party is and what is their purpose. The Commission had referred to the WP-AI mandate, already included in the participants file, whereas the Secretariat informed them that a CD-Rom has been developed to address questions of this sort. It includes information about the EU injury burden, vision and priorities of WP-AI, what the Public Health Programme is about, a who-is-who list of WP-AI members and DG Sanco officials and theoretical and practical overlaps between the working parties. A forthcoming meeting of project participants is scheduled to assess the materials. An inquiry about the identity of the partners and their role in this project was raised. It was explained that the Secretariat is an administrative project; unlike the other projects (epidemiological and data collection), it has 10 associated partners (attributed a budget for travel/accommodation costs to facilitate the EC in this area) and one other member has been contracted for the production of the newsletters and the website. It was stated that the structure of the projects run by ECSA should be used a positive model regarding budget distribution of tasks linked to data and information gathering by partners. An inquiry was made whether the WP-AI-members and IDB coordinators had been consulted during the building of the statistical portal, which in fact they had together with the EC and WHO. The interface developed does not resemble any other interface to date. The pilot portal was launched in October 2005 and all members have been requested to provide constructive feedback. It was mentioned that many surveys have been sent to the WP-AI members by the Secretariat and have not be financially compensated for their time. Part of these surveys fall under the Burden of Injuries Task Force which was developed by the Commission Services on a voluntary basis and all contributions have been made on people s own time. The Secretariat has respected the time of all members and clearly requires any participation on voluntary basis. Response rates have, so far, been high. EUNESE (European Safety among the Elderly) Kiki Petroulaki presented the progress of the EUNESE project informing the members, amongst other items, that a draft Policy Manual consisting of best practices targeting both independently living and institutionalized EU elderly (>65) has been

4 drafted. In addition, a website has been created and approximately 76 institutes have expressed interest to join this network. Clarification was requested regarding activities being carried out in the EUNESE (specifically in Workgroup 2) and the Secretariat project with regards to data analysis. EUNESE focuses specifically on the elderly, gathering relevant materials and data and the risk factors for injuries, while the Secretariat is developing an all-injuries statistics portal that aiming to become a single-entry point for injury statistics by integrating many different EU and international data sources. Claudio Detogni was informed that the interim report of EUNESE had been sent to him prior to the submission to the EC. In the event that a partner designated to a specific work group also participates in another work group, the work group leader that contacted the outside partner is responsible to make provisions to compensate this partner. The Commission Services informed the members that the EUNESE technical interim report was accepted and is posted on the EC website. APOLLO The coordinated APOLLO project started in December 2005 and will run for the following three years. This project schemes to actively manage injuries at each level of this complex public health problem. Similar to the structure followed in other successful endeavours, the project will approach the prevention of injuries at the overall policy level, apply the priorities and strategies at the operational level and devote substantial resources to communicate the results. The aims and objectives of this project were presented together with the structure and budgetary details. Joanne Vincenten expressed her interest in keeping close communications between both projects (APOLLO and CSAP) as some of the outcomes of the CSAP project may be of value to the development of the APOLLO project, mainly work package 3 and to ensure work being carried out on child injury prevention good practices in CSAP will not be duplicated in APOLLO. This will also ensure that both projects are being more effective with the limited resources of the Commission. Best Practices in Prevention of Skiing Accidents in Europe This project started on September 1, Claudio Detogni presented the aims and expected outcomes of this project as well as provided a brief introduction about the institute ULSS 20 Verona. He informed the members that a consensus meeting with the Winter Olympic Committee has been scheduled in February A question was raised concerning the burden of ski injuries and the relevance of this type of injury being addressed at the EU level. Approximately 2 to 3 million ski injuries occur each year and the major risk is concentrated in the Alps, the area on which this project will focus.

5 Anamort Bertrand Thelot presented the objectives and tasks of the Anamort project, which aims- to improve the comparability and quality of European death statistics. The project is of prime interest for the injury mortality data comparability. This project addresses two fields, injury and mortality data and has been attributed to the Working Party on Mortality and Morbidity. It was mentioned how data is available but the issue is how to make sense of the results. The Public Health Programme finances numerous projects and within this context, seven Working Parties have been developed which aim at re-grouping the different activities and linking them together. The Working Parties also meet together at a horizontal level. The Committee of Member States meet twice a year to discuss the activities of the Working Parties. The project Workhealth II did not make a presentation during this meeting because it was already presented in a previous meeting. 6. Mid term perspectives for an injury information system Rupert Kisser presented the mid term perspectives and ideas on the injury information system (ISS) and underlined it is not a project. The aim, policy and system objectives were presented as well as how to access this system and outputs. Data from different countries under one roof would be very helpful and also provide opportunities to add other sources. As difficulties exist when comparing data from different member states, it was recommended to work on the validity and quality of data. The advice of WHO will be sought to carry out this task. It was proposed to integrate simplified E-coded surveillance in the IDB as well as software that would create an automated recognition regarding injuries. It was mentioned how in fact this is not a midterm plan, but should be a plan of yesterday. There is a mechanism of injury data on the health system -it may not be of the best quality however, it is workable. Mortality data from WHO is available and one of the APOLLO subprojects of WP2 run by CSI, NL will carry out a study on the analysis of injury medical costs. The Commission Services welcomed the clear vision presented by Mr. Kisser and supports the initiative to define soon a mid term plan. 7. Safety of products and services Cecile Billaux from Directorate B3 Product and Service Safety Unit talked about the priorities and initiatives being launched. During the IDB re-launch workshop a task force was set up on product safety data aiming to address how to optimize and improve data collection. It is possible to gather product data information via the IDB, whereas data on services is extremely difficult due to inherent legal and financial implications.

6 Apart from two projects carried out in the past, a new pilot project has been tendered to analyze the available current data in the IDB and identify hazardous circumstances, which has been granted to the CSI, NL to carry out. An international workshop on Accident/injury data collection for non-food product and service risk assessment has been scheduled on February 20-21, For further information about the conference, please reference the EC website. Suggestions are welcomed. Reference is made to the previous study by CEREPRI, Greece. Pilot testing is not only about putting a new question on the IDB survey, it is also to examine if another method is possible. A suggestion was proposed regarding the possibility of gathering telephone and contact information from the Emergency Room patients in order to contact them at a later stage and whether funding would be provisioned for this. It is too early to respond to this inquiry. Any relevant documents about conference (provided by C. Billaux) will be annexed to minutes. 8. Draft Commission Communication followed by a Council Recommendation The Commission Services presented the draft communication document that aims to create public awareness about the general injury problem, presenting the burden as well as the high potential for the prevention of injuries. Member States are to be encouraged to develop national action plans, which would focus on the reduction and prevention of injuries. The communication document is a direct translation of the strategic document. The communication document is expected to be followed by a Council Recommendation (white paper) - a legal act of the European Commission on injury prevention and safety promotion, which provides information to the Member States on setting up arrangements for injury prevention and the reduction of injury related risks, however, it is not legally binding for the Member States. The Working Party responded positively to the presented documents. The white paper will harness different funding tasks; however, in order to avoid possible conflicts of any sort, all funding mechanisms available would be harnessed to meet the policy being proposed. For example, in the environment and health action plan, DG research has mobilized research activities (one of the objectives of report), whereas DG Sanco has provided the funding on indicators. Clarification was requested regarding the section that states members need to show compatibility with the requirements of the IDB. It was recommended including an overall statement at the beginning of the document about how much the Working Party is concerned about the injury problem. Any last comments should be addressed to the Commission Services.

7 9. Summary report of meeting of Governmental Experts Dimitrios Efthymiadis presented the outcome of the consultation meeting of the Member State representatives. The aim of this meeting was to make member state representatives aware as well as to review and discuss the draft document proposals (communication and council recommendation) on injury prevention and safety promotion. The majority of delegates welcomed the initiative of the Commission Services and was in favour of both policy documents. A second meeting will be scheduled following the adoption of the documents. An informal consultation procedure has been launched with the other EC Services. While, a formal inter-service consultation is scheduled to take place just before the holiday break once the Commissioner gives his approval. The adoption of the document is expected by the College of Commissioners by end of January and if adopted, it will be transferred to the Council, who will then schedule a meeting. The Austrian Presidency responded positively and they will schedule these documents in the Council as early as possible. The delegate from DG Consumer mentioned that these documents were presented and discussed with members of the GPSD-Committee during a meeting, and the group was supportive of these initiatives. 10. WHO presentation Dinseh Sethi presented the WHO activities in violence and injury prevention taking place in Europe. Topics included information on the violence problem, regional committee resolution, the Ministry of Health focal points together with their terms of reference and information about the first meeting, the vision created by the network and the results from the national surveys. He also read a formal letter on behalf of the VIP-coordinator of WHO-Euro (Francesca Racioppi), who expressed WHO-Euro office strong endorsement of the EC initiative for a Communication and a Resolution in Injury Prevention. The Commission Services informed members that the initiatives being carried out by the WP-AI are in line with previous activities, such as the development of the Green Paper by the Mental Health Working Party. The positive feedback received by WHO and the Member State representatives is a clear sign that the WP-AI is going in the right direction. 11. Strategic Document of the Working Party on Accidents and Injuries The Commission Services presented the position paper of the Working Party on Accidents and Injuries. The steps carried out to develop this paper were discussed together with the priorities and three pillars of EU actions. Two new priorities have been included in this document, namely sport injuries and consumer safety. WP-AI members were provided the opportunity to comment on this document after the last Working Party meeting as well as colleagues in consumer safety and road

8 traffic. It is important to have a strong linkage with these different services to avoid duplication and develop cohesion. The Commission Services invite the Secretariat to develop a communication document, which is now available and was annexed to the agenda. The members were encouraged to contact their health ministries to promote this document. The EC does not propose the development of an agency for the European clearing house on injury data and good practices, but expects that current PHP-funding will contribute to stronger collaboration among existing centers in the EU and a pooling together of resources and know how. The members were encouraged to contact their health ministries to promote this document as well as a favourable position on the EC-initiatives in the Council. The public health rapporteur in the Europarliament, Mr. Trakatellis, is in favour of these documents and has stated that it is a very desirable and welcome initiative. 12. Other business The next meeting was not announced since the UK Presidency proposes budget cuts, which will create difficulties on funding internal secretariats. Implementation and budgetary aspects of projects has been taken over by the Executive Agency and therefore, it will be necessary to discuss with them when the next meeting will be (if they have prioritized this). The Commission Services thanked all participants for attending the meeting.