The European Commission is supporting Member States to implement the Council Recommendation on access to affordable high-quality long-term care through a series of thematic Mutual Learning workshops.

The workshop provided participants with an opportunity to exchange among themselves and with experts on challenges and best practices related to quality of long-term care, such as quality standards, quality assurance, integrated care and person-centred approaches.  

Main takeaways

• Person-centred and integrated care requires systematic change in the design, governance, and regulation of care, incorporating the views of users and their families, and investing in training the care workforce. ICT and digital tools can play a key role in achieving the aims of person-centred and integrated care and high-quality care services.
   
• Multidisciplinary teams and individualised care plans where all health and care providers are connected in responding to the needs of care users can help improve transitions between settings. 
   
• Overarching quality framework(s) at national level need to cover all types of settings, while reflecting their diversity and allowing for flexibility for their application. All relevant stakeholders should be involved in the elaboration of these standards.
   
• There is a need for collaboration rather than punitive measures in quality assurance, and focus should be put on continuous quality improvement processes.

Background

The Recommendation invites Member States to ensure that high-quality criteria and standards are established for all long-term care settings, tailored to their characteristics, and to apply them to all long-term care providers irrespective of their legal status.  

To that effect, Member States are invited to ensure a national quality framework for long-term care in accordance with quality principles such as respect, prevention, person-centeredness, comprehensiveness and continuity, focus on outcomes, transparency, workforce and facilities.

This framework should also include an appropriate quality assurance mechanism.