Sixty-eight World Health Assembly, Geneva, 18 – 26 May 2015
General Discussion in Plenary: “Building Resilient Health Systems”
Address by Mr. Kristjan Thor Juliusson, Minister of Health in Iceland

Mr/Mrs President, Director General, Regional Directors, Honourable Delegates,

I want to begin by thanking Mrs Chan for her leadership and commitment and WHO as a whole for its support to member states.

We can all agree that Health constitutes the basis for the wealth and well-being of nations.

Our Health Systems main objectives are to - improve, maintain or restore health. But Health Systems can only be as effective as the services they provide. Without strong leadership and policies, Health Systems do not spontaneously provide effective services or balanced responses to challenges, nor do they make the most efficient use of their resources.

Most of us, here in this room, are very familiar - maybe too familiar - with the constant debate on ways and solutions of how we can improve our current health services in the best interests of our citizens', how to best use our resources, and how to organize our Health Systems so they attract talented professionals.

But this is not all - we not only need Health Systems that perform well, we also need Health Systems that can respond to unexpected or expected challenges that they might encounter.

We need Resilient Health Systems that have the ability to adapt to, and sustain key operations in the face of a challenge.

In Iceland - this became particularity relevant in the aftermath of the financial crisis we experienced last decade.

The Icelandic Health System is supported by a strong legal and regulatory framework. Nonetheless, a legal and regulatory framework does not by itself ensure a good performance of health services.

Expenditure cuts weakened the basic pillars of our healthcare system and signs thereof become visible. The pressure on the primary health care and hospitals, especially the University Hospital, increased at the same time as the recruitment of health professionals become difficult as a result of this pressure as well as equipment and premises becoming outdated.

This showed us that if pressure on the Health services increases and the underlying pillars are being affected, the performance of the system is threatened.

In response to this challenge we have had to focus on the basic pillars of our system and turning our ship – if you could say so – back on the right course. We have increased funding to the Health System but at the same time tried to make better use our available funding and other resources. We are currently working on strengthening our Primary Health Care with the possibility of introducing gatekeeping in our System. We have also put more focus on Healthy Communities and how to involve other sectors and governments in Health.  While doing this we have also tried to safeguard the quality and safety of our Health system.

Mr/Mrs President

Resilient Health Systems are of great importance, and they have relevance beyond financial and economic crisis, as the recent Ebola epidemic outbreak showed us. 

Our Health Systems are constantly confronted with stress, shocks, crises and change of environment. We not only need to build Resilient Health Systems we also need to foster Resilient Communities. - Resilient Communities that are capable of recovering from adverse situations.

We have so many tools and resources at hand to help us building Resilient Communities and Resilient Health Systems. But we need to harness these resources and knowledge as well as better understand what makes one Health Systems more resilient than another.

Thank you for your attention.