Health and wealth in Europe

doi:10.1136/bmj.a344

BMJ 2008;336:1390 (21 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a344

Editorials

Health and wealth in Europe

European initiative seeks to spur action to tackle wideninghealth divides

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Next week, health ministers from all 53 member states of theWorld Health Organization’s European Region will meetin Tallinn to agree on a new charter. The first pan-Europeancharter on health systems—signed in Ljubljana in 1989—focusedon the purpose, goals, and core values of health systems. TheTallinn charter is more ambitious. Its aim is to spur politicalrecognition of the economic case for investing in health systems,and to promote more effective stewardship of health resourcesby governments.

Expenditure on health services is still widely viewed as a shortterm cost, but substantial evidence now exists that it can benefitthe economy. According to WHO, increasing life expectancy atbirth by 10% increases economic growth by 0.35% each year.¹The view that health and wealth go together was also at theheart of the Wanless report, which argued that putting a highpriority on disease prevention and effective . . . [Full text of this article]

David J Hunter, professor of health policy and management¹, Tessa Richards, assistant editor²

¹ Durham University Queen’s Campus, Thornaby, Stockton on Tees TS17 6BH, ² BMJ, London WC1H 9JR

d.j.hunter@durham.ac.uk