The Board meeting of E.C.H.O. (European Confederation of Care Home Organisations) was held today, Wednesday 8 February in the blue room of ASCOM Confcommercio in Bologna. The Confederation is currently engaged in bringing together all the experiences and competences of its member associations to allow a harmonious development of the reforms in the coming years.

PROPOSALS AND STRATEGIES TO RELAUNCH THE SOCIAL AND HEALTH CARE SECTOR.

The work was coordinated by Bologna entrepreneur Averardo Orta, President of the European Confederation for the three-year period 2022-2025. He was joined by the other members of the board: Sebastiano Capurso of ANASTE (Italy) treasurer, Alberto Echevarria of FED (Spain) secretary general.

Members from other countries such as Belgium and Greece were invited to the meeting. It was a moment of confrontation between different experiences and competences with the aim of redesigning the future of a sector strongly bent by the crisis but still representing a fundamental node of the social-health network in continuity and coordination with the other territorial services. The main institutions brought their greetings to the board meeting: for the Emilia-Romagna Region, Councillor for Welfare Igor Taruffi was present, and for the Municipality of Bologna, Councillor Luca Rizzo Nervo, with delegated powers for welfare and health. Also present was Gianluigi Pirazzoli, president of ANASTE Emilia Romagna.

This is the comment of E.C.H.O. president Averardo Orta: « The social and health sector is called upon to face a terrible crisis due to the pandemic, to which is added the problem of the energy crisis, as well as the chronic shortage of medical and nursing staff. We are committed to studying and proposing solutions and strategies to revitalise a sector that is fundamental in that it takes care of hundreds of thousands of fragile citizens to enable them to survive and receive the most appropriate care. It is important that in an organisation of this level Italy is present as well as represented, and therefore Emilia-Romagna, which is a symbol of excellent healthcare, as was also seen during Covid. In the light of the experiences gained by the Member States during these pandemic years, we will try to redesign the future of the socio-health sector« .