Empowering Patients and Health Related NGO’s to influence Health Policy.
TIS training sessions 2019-2020
Description of training programme
Novermber 2019
Malta Health Network ( MHN) has organised these training sessions and were partly financed by The Malta Council for Voluntary Sector as part of the Training Initiative Scheme. The training was designed to specifically address Maltese patient and health related NGOs needs. This training was also done in collaboration with local and foreign trainers.
The training mainly focused on 3 areas:
a) The importance of familiarizing the participants with local and relevant EU institutions in the area of Health Policy.
b) Maximizing NGO’s potential for networking with other NGO’s, professional bodies, experts and national authorities.
c) How to give and also the importance of giving a useful feedback on proposed policies.
The different speakers gave us information on:
a) how the civil society can be pro-active in the design of both national and international policies and legislation.
b) how EU Policies effect Malta and how patient and health related NGOs can contribute through the better understanding of EU policy and legislation development.
c) Awareness in regards to the better use of media and social media, as well as the importance of lobbying not only with other health related NGOs but also lobbying with the Government.
Basic information about these training Seminars
October 2019
These training seminars mainly consisted on how Patient organisations can have more influence on the development of Health related policies in Malta and on EU level. In line with these training seminars the Health related NGOs will also have a stronger voice in the process of Formulating The 2030 Health Strategy.
In view of this need for Health Organisations to have a more organised and robust voice, MHN has offered this training for free to its members and all interested organisations so that the entities will be in a better position to liase, with local authorities and contribute actively to the process in a timely manner.
The Patient and Civil Society
October 2019
The first and second training seminars were held under the auspieces of HE The President of Malta Dr.George Vella.
He opened these training sessions with a good speech about the role of the patient in the society and how society influences the patient.
During this session several speakers made their contribution of topics related with the patient and society. Panel discussion was followed so that the members could also ask any questions related with the matter.
These speakers were:
a) Dr. Matthias Wismar who gave good explanation about what is The Civil Society and what it can do for health.
b) Dr. Natasha Muscat Azzopardi also gave an explanation of what The Health Strategy 2020+ involves.
c) Dr. Mario Thomas Vassallo gave a good explanation about the role of Civil Society and Health in Malta.
After that the panel discussion ended 2 member organisations gave a very interesting presentation about the services they offer and also about their NGO . This also served as networking as the member organisations helped them more to work and liaise together when it comes to policy making.
Presentation by Dr Matthias Wismar
Presentation by Dr Mario Thomas Vassallo
The Patient and Health Policy
November 2019
This training seminar mainly focused on the patient and how the patient can contribute better towards health policy, as well as how Health related NGOs can contribute better towards the making of Health Policy.
This training seminar was also held under the auspices of HE The President of Malta Dr.George Vella.
During this session several speakers made their contribution on topics related with Health Policy. Panel Discussion was also followed up after the talks.
These speakers were:
a) Ms. Elena Balestri who spoke about The European Health Policies and how they influence the patients.
b) Dr. Denis Vella Baldacchino gave a good presentation about Health policies and how the patient can contribute towards these policies.
c) Dr. Hugo Agius Muscat gave a presentation about the digital platform of myHealth and what is in there for the patient.
The seminars ended up by a presentation about Karl Vella Foundation and what they do for the patient and for the community.
Presentation by Dr. Hugo Agius Muscat
Presentation by Karl Vella Foundation
Patient Empowerment
January 2020
Patient Empowerment is the 3 rd seminar being organised by the MHN. This seminar was held at The Meeting Place. This seminar mainly focused on the aspect of how to empower the patient and it was a very fruitful seminar as the members who attended the seminar continued asking questions even after the seminar has finished.
Like the other seminars after that the speakers gave their presentations panel discussion followed up.
The speakers were:
a) Ms. Gertrude Buttigieg who gave a good presentation on what is patient empowerment and the importance of empowering the patient.
b) Ms. Gudula Peterson spoke about SIP Europe and SIP Malta and how we can collaborate together
c) Ms. Janita Winters from GS1 gave a presentation on the equipment that sometimes the patient needs to enhance his empowerment.
d) Ms. Claire Shoemake also gave a good presentation about the importance of disposing properly the pharmaceuticals that we have at home.
e) Ms. Mary Vella from ARAM gave a presentation on EUPATI training and what it involves. She also encouraged other members to do this training as it will help them and enhance the aspect of patient empowerment.
Presentation by Ms Gertrude Buttigieg
Presentation by Ms Juanita Winterger
Training Seminar 4- The Patient and Legislation
February 2020
This was the last training seminar from this series of training seminars as from the feedback that we got from our NGO member associates who attended for these training sessions they are keen to learn more on some of these topics.
As they say save the best for the last and the last session focused on the patient and legislation.
This 4th Seminar included an overview of the process involved in the drafting and approval of a Law in Malta and when and how civil society can intervene in the process. A look at Patients’ rights in Malta will also be discussed.
This was the last of 4 training seminars during which we looked at:
1) How Patient organisations can have more influence on the development of Health related policies in Malta and on a European level.
2) The voice of organisations is very important in the process currently undertaken by local authorities in formulating the Health Strategy 2030.
In view of all this the need for Health Organisations is to have a more organised and robust voice.
MHN in the future will again be offering training for free to it’s members and all interested organisations so that entities will be in a better position to liaise, with local authorities and contribute actively to the process in a timely manner.
This training also served MHN members and other interested organisations to better liaise with local authorities and also contribute towards making health related policies.
During the last session we had several speakers who spoke to us about the role of the patient and legislation , how legislation works, what it entails to make a law.
Dr. Tonio Borg gave us an interesting talk about how the Maltese and European Parliament work when it comes in making legislation.
Dr. Daniel Bianchi also gave an interseting presentation on the legislation in Malta
Dr. John Cachia gave a presentation on is Law an empowering tool.
Presentation by Dr. John Cachia
Presentation by Dr Daniel Bianchi
