Through the looking glass: Adjusting to the ‘new normal’ post-COVID-19

For the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has put society, people, hospitals, and healthcare systems under unprecedented pressure. The effect of the pandemic on European national health systems exposed their unpreparedness to manage these pressures and affected people living acute and chronic non-COVID related health conditions in dramatic ways.

The interruption of essential hospital services, the cancellation of elective surgeries, the deprioritisation of new diagnoses and treatments, and the fear of patients to visit hospitals during the pandemic heavily impacted their day-to-day life and seriously jeopardised their health.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is unfortunately not over. However, as the EU adjusts to the ‘new normal’, it is crucial that Member States leverage funding mechanisms and opportunities to invest into resilient healthcare systems, innovative and efficient care provision – in the hospital, the community and at home. This will lead to improved patient outcomes, and ensure no patient is left behind in the event of another cross-border health emergency.

Read more about the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 and the proposed solutions to build back better healthcare systems in our newly released paper ‘Through the looking-glass: Adjusting to the ‘new normal’ post-COVID-19’.