This story started with a European CAM stakeholder group meeting in July 2010. The first Eurocam meeting was in December 2011 and in January 2019, Eurocam received its official status as a foundation.
Ton Nicolai is the general secretary and together with Miranda Rutchie, operations manager and communication advisor, Sonja Maric, also communication advisor and Wim Menkveld, the treasurer, they are the EC of Eurocam.
The current work of Eurocam contains next points:
WHO:
On the 7thof October, at the 70th session (virtual this time) of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, EUROCAM’s application for accreditation as a “regional non-State actor not in official relations with WHO to attend meetings of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe” Eurocam was adopted by consensus! The application fulfilled all the established criteria.
Something to celebrate!
EU4Health Programme:
The European Commission released an ambitious proposal for a health programme 2019-2027 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has become a severe public health emergency with implications for citizens, societies, and economics.
The three main objectives of the EU4Health Programme are:
1-Protecting people in the EU from serious cross-border health threats and improving crisis management capacity;
2-Making medicines, medical devices and other crisis relevant products, available and affordable and supporting innovation;
3-Strengthen health systems and the health care workforce, including by investing in public health, for instance through health promotion and disease prevention programmes and improving access to healthcare.
EUROCAM proposed several amendments to the Programme, based on the following key points:
The focus of healthcare should move away from primarily a treatment- oriented agenda to one which engages people more directly in their personal health and well-being thereby preventing illness and prolonging life.
The ever increasing health care expenditure, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and failure of effectively managing them, the huge burden of adverse side effects and mortality due to the toxicity of prescription drugs, and the growing resistance to antibiotics can only be remedied by shifting our focus from our attempts to defeat disease to the promotion of health and prevention.
Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine has a substantial role to play when it comes to restoring the patients’ own natural systems for fighting disease and maintaining health with the aid of natural medicines, modification of lifestyle, dietary change and health psychology approaches.
Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine can substantially contribute to tackling current EU health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the growing incidence and prevalence of NCDs and the burden of medication-related morbidity and mortality.
Working groups:
Eurocam is working on several topics in small internal groups:
- MEP Intrest group on integrative medicine and health
- Working group on cancer and cam
- Working group on statutory regulation and CAM in Europe
- Working group in communication
- Working group on AMR
- Working group Citizens engagement & participation
