Providing equal access and quality care to all patients - regardless of their origin, language, gender identity and socioeconomic situation. This is what Swiss Health Network for Equity is committed to in collaboration with the FOPH.
Ensuring a high level of patient safety and quality of care in view of increasing patient diversity is a major challenge for hospitals. Swiss Health Network for Equity focuses on disadvantaged population groups and aims to develop innovative solutions to ensure good healthcare for all.
Activities of the network
Swiss Health Network for Equity is active in these areas:
- connecting hospitals and other institutions that are committed to equity in health care
- knowledge transfer and best practices
- promotion of intercultural translation and transcultural competences
- research on equity in health care
- developing indicators to measure equity and defining quality standards for patient care.
Origins and Call to Action
The FOPH already supported several hospitals and hospital groups during the «Migration and Health 2002-2017» program. These developed concepts and measures for migrant-friendly medical care as «Migrant Friendly Hospitals». The handbook «Diversity and equality of opportunity» and the documentary film «Comprehension Can Cure» are products of this commitment, as well as the Call to Action that the hospitals launched on the occasion of their first national conference (see infobox / documents).
The «Migrant Friendly Hospitals» formed in 2015 the «Swiss Hospitals for Equity» network in order to continue improving the quality of care for disadvantaged population groups. Now the network has changed its name to «Swiss Health Network for Equity», on the legal basis of an association, which was constituted in June 2023
National conferences
The members and experts of the «Swiss Hospitals for Equity» network regularly participated in national conferences on the topic of health equity (see infobox / links). They made an important contribution to Health Equity Forum 2022 and are also collaborating with the FOPH for the Health Equity Forum 2023.
Health Equity Forum 2023: Here you can find the program and the presentations. The topic was «Equity in Health Care: impulses for reflection, tools for action».
Last modification 06.12.2023
Contact
Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Healthcare and Related Professions Division
Health Equity Section
Schwarzenburgstrasse 157
3003
Bern
Switzerland