Project News

Cairo, 26-28 September 2017- Representatives from Ministry of Public Health and National Health Security Office (NHSO) in Thailand were invited to join the consultative meeting on What to Purchase/Provide for UHC- Designing, Financing and Delivering Health Service Packages in the Eastern Mediterranean. In order to support EMRO member states in their efforts towards universal health coverage, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean arranged a 3-day meeting, 26–28 September, bringing together 23 globally renowned experts and 26 senior and mid-level policy-makers and health practitioners from 18 Member States. The meeting aimed to developing a universal health coverage priority benefit package for Member States of the Eastern Mediterranean.

During the meeting, representatives from Thailand shared their experiences and lessons learned: Development of benefit package in Thailand: from pragmatic to sophisticated process, as well as experts from other regions and representatives from member States from the region presented the current situation in their respective countries.

Participants of the meeting noted the acute need for increased investment in health, in order to ensure access for all. Establishing a national priority benefit package, and advancing towards increased financial protection and universal health coverage is a continuous and stepwise process, and not a one-off effort, which includes taking the numerous implementation challenges into account.