The 30th anniversary of HOPE the HOPE Exchange Programme was focused on the improvement of the relation between hospitals and primary care, the 2011 topic. Participants brought back in Turku the results of their stay abroad. Their research was gathered in the work published in November 2011, “Better Health – a shared challenge for hospitals and primary health care“. Despite some common challenges, the picture was rather diverse as it could be expected. However, this gave quite a lot of opportunities to identify good practices. 111 institutions from 22 countries were available for this 4‐week training period (May‐June), intended for managers and other professionals with managerial responsibilities working in healthcare facilities. Several thousands of professionals have benefited of the exchange programme since it was created in 1981.

The spread of chronic diseases and the demographic changes are pushing for better articulation, even integration of care levels. A lot still needs to be done. “In this context, the ageing of health workforce and the ageing of patients have to be seriously considered” said HOPE new President in presenting this as the topic for the 2012 HOPE Exchange Programme.

Download here the HOPE report on “Better Health – a shared challenge for hospitals and primary health care”