Addressing Europe’s Medical Deserts

Moving “AHEAD”

A new project called AHEAD, or the Action for Health and Equity: Addressing medical Deserts project, aims to address the issue.

The AHEAD project cites three goals:

1. Generating evidence and educating stakeholders on the topic of medical deserts, as well as the policies that relate to the issue. These efforts would focus specifically on the countries involved in the project: Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia.
2. Building consensus alongside policymakers on what measures might prevent or reduce the presence of medical deserts.
3. Ensuring cooperation on policy goals going forward, among both policymakers and the wider European regional stakeholders.

The project is a collaboration of the Active Citizenship Network, along with five other civil society organisations from across the region.

About Medical Deserts

Medical deserts are isolated or depopulated areas with extremely low numbers, or even shortages, of health workers. These areas also face an inadequate composition of health care professionals, such as not enough properly trained specialists, and often lack access to digital health technologies that could otherwise facilitate care.

These situations compound health inequities in the population and make it difficult to attain equitable access to treatment for all Europeans.

But the AHEAD project is working to improve the situation, envisioning a Europe where patients have equitable access to high quality care and treatment no matter here they are located. With strong regional and national cooperation, and a focus on the unmet needs of vulnerable populations, they could make crucial steps forward for those living in Europe’s medical deserts.