Healthcare democracy: putting people at the heart of the system

According to the regional health agencies (ARS) website:
“Democracy in healthcare is a process that involves all the players in the healthcare system in the development and implementation of healthcare policy, in a spirit of dialogue and consultation.

Democracy in healthcare means recognizing the rights of healthcare users and developing better healthcare policies and systems. Far from being a disembodied concept, healthcare democracy is put into practice through a variety of mechanisms and players:

• The Conférences régionales de la santé et de l’autonomie (CRSA) and the Conseils territoriaux de santé (CTS ) are the main bodies for healthcare democracy in the regions. They are the ideal place for all players in the healthcare sector to discuss and express their views.
• Associations are also key players in healthcare democracy. In particular, user associations will be able to express and defend collective rights.
• Patients also contribute to the development of healthcare policies. Their experiences can provide invaluable information about care, the patient/carer relationship, treatments, drugs, costs and so on.

The aim of healthcare democracy is to involve all stakeholders in the development and implementation of healthcare policy, in a spirit of dialogue and consultation, with people and their experiences as key factors.

Actions taken within the framework of health democracy are beginning to bear fruit. A call for projects has been launched by the ARS and the CRSA in 2022. The 21 selected projects, covering a wide range of subjects, from the creation of a comic strip to better understand the care pathway, to the creation of standardized tools to better integrate cognitively impaired patients, will therefore be funded and launched throughout 2022-2023.