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There are >400 million workers in 53 Member States of the WHO European Region. Poor working conditions result in >300 000 work-related deaths and economic losses of 4% of the GDP of the Region every year. The WHO Global Plan of Action (GPA) on Worker’s Health recommends that the Member States provide basic occupational health services (BOHS) to all workers, including informal sectors, small enterprises, and agriculture.
Method
Since 2008, WHO/Europe provided technical and policy supports to the Member States through the biennial collaborative agreements (BCA) with the ministries of health to improve coverage of occupational health services focusing to underserved and vulnerable workers, following BOHS principle. The activities were supported by the South East Europe (SEE) Network for Workers’ Health and WHO European Network for Workers’ Health, ILO, and EU-OSHA.
Results
In collaboration with WHO collaborating centres and national focal points, WHO/Europe achieved the followings: development and implementation of national strategies and action plans on occupational health services in Croatia, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, and Serbia; building core human capacities for promoting BOHS in Albania; integrating occupational health services into primary health care system for the workers in SMEs and informal sector in Turkey. Occupational health service professionals were trained through the South East Europe Workplace Academy (SEEWA) organized by SEE Network in 2011.
Discussion
To meet the emerging public health challenges such as social determinants of health and burden of non-communicable diseases, WHO/Europe is preparing Health2020 as framework guidance for new European health policy in 2012. In the framework of Health2020 and GPA WHO/Europe will continue to provide technical and policy supports to the Member States for the integration of BOHS into the public health services and health systems.