The self-assessment process of the Essential Public Health Operations kicks off in Macedonia

The self-assessment process of the Essential Public Health Operations in Macedonia commenced with а three-day workshop in Ohrid. In the presence of WHO experts and governmental representatives, nearly thirty stakeholders from the health and other sectors in Macedonia assessed the essential public health operations using the WHO self-assessment tool.

Under the 2014/2015 Biennial Collaborative Agreement (BCA) between the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, a three-day Workshop on initiating the self-assessment process of the Essential Public Health Operations took place in Ohrid on August 25-27, 2014.

Organized in accordance with the conclusions drawn from the Initial meeting for establishing Policy Dialogue on Public Health on national level, held in February 2014, its main objective was to introduce and establish the basic guidelines for the self-assessment process as well as to present the 2014 version of the WHO self-assessment tool for the Essential Public Health Operations.

The Workshop was officially opened by Ms. Sanja Sazdovska from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Gordana Konjanovska, President of the Council of the Municipality of Ohrid, Dr. Sasho Vasilevski, MP and member of the Standing Parliamentary Committee for Health and Ms. Snezhana Chichevalieva, Head of WHO Country Office.

The workshop was also attended by by Dr. Elke Jakubowski, Programme Manager for Public Health Services at WHO Europe, Dr. José María Martín Moreno, WHO consultant and professor of public health at high ranking European universities and Dr. Maria Ruseva, WHO consultant.

Nearly thirty stakeholders coming from the health and several other sectors, including Studiorum, took part by self-assessing the ten essential public health operations (EPHO) through the four areas i.e. Emergency preparedness and response, Health protection, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

The self-assessment process incited dynamic and constructive discussions related to the current situation in the country, expressing the participants’ general opinion that the tool can also be used for teaching purposes and that its crucial advantage is that it does not require re-assessment of the whole system but that it can be used as check-point for assessing specific improvements across PH operations, both horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, the participants suggested that an electronic version (e-platform) in Macedonian would largely simplify the assessment process, thus contributing substantially to both the policy dialogue on public health and the revision of the national programs.

The results that were obtained during the pilot-workshop will serve as a basis for further development of the open consultation process and adoption of Public Health Strategy and Action Plan as an integral part of the national Health 2020 Operational Plan in line with the WHO Health 2020.

More information is available here.