World Hospitals and Health Services - International Hospital ...

EDITORIAL
Learning from
the tsunami
PROFESSOR PER-GUNNAR SVENSSON
DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL FEDERATION
This issue of World Hospitals and Health Services will be
released at the 34th IHF International Hospital
Congress to be held in Nice, France, 20-22
September 2005. It is therefore my pleasure to welcome
participants to this important event, where many challenges
for hospitals and health services will be on the agenda; the
role of hospitals in sustainable development, malpractice
insurance and patient safety, research in hospital and
management, ranking of hospitals, valuation of hospital
personnel, e-health and much more are on the programme.
We look forward to seeing many participants and engaging
in intensive dialogue on these important issues.
The content of this issue of the journal includes a country
profile of France, a country that has ranked number one in
a WHO World Health Report in 2003. It is interesting to see
that in spite of this high ranking, the French health service
system is still evolving and changing in order to adapt to the
demands of today and the perceived ones of tomorrow.
In another article, appraisals of work undertaken together
with the many lessons learnt from tsunami, are
summarized. At the same time, it is worth noting that in
some cases, assessment of the assistance provided to the
victims of the tsunami by national and international
sources, has been positive. However, in others, as in
Sweden and Finland, countries from which victims were
also counted, the national assessment encountered some
criticism.
Finally, there is an article on e-health, a topic which is
gaining in importance. The IHF Governing Council decided
in 2004 to form a new chapter on IT. In many countries,
huge investments are being made in order to form, for
example, unified national electronic medical record
systems; create information services targeting staff and the
general public; introduction or planned introduction, in
many countries, of booking systems.
PROFESSOR PER-GUNNAR SVENSSON
Director General
International Hospital Federation
Vol. 41 No. 3 WORLD | World hospitals Hospitals and and health Health services Services | 13| 03