This chapter presents a series of indicators related to the resilience of health systems, defined as the capacity of health systems to adapt efficiently to changing economic, technological and demographic environments.
Digital technology offers great opportunities to deliver health services more efficiently, and the European Commission supports a digital transformation of health systems to empower citizens to have access to their health data and to promote exchange of health data among health care providers across the EU. The use of eHealth and ePrescribing continues to grow in many EU countries, although some countries are lagging behind.
The ageing of the population requires profound transformations in health systems, from a focus on acute care in hospitals to more integrated and people-centred care in the community. Many EU countries have begun this transformation over the past 15 years – for example by reducing the average length of stay in hospitals and promoting a greater use of day surgery combined with follow-up care, but the process still requires ongoing, long-term effort.
Population ageing means not only that there will be growing needs for health care in the years ahead, but also growing needs for long-term care. The latest projections from the EC confirm that public spending on long-term care is projected to grow faster than public spending on health care over the coming decades, highlighting the importance to find more innovative ways to respond to health care and long-term care needs more efficiently.