While climate mitigation measures remain without alternatives, building more resilient, sustainable healthcare systems will help withstand further negative climate change impacts on people’s health and wellbeing. Moreover, the competitiveness of Europe’s industry depends on healthy people to continuously drive progress, in healthcare and beyond. Climate, health, sustainable prosperity and competitiveness are intrinsically linked.
MedTech Europe envisions a future where our healthcare systems are environmentally and financially sustainable, equitable and resilient to future crises. To move from vision to action, we recommend a holistic and coordinated approach to implementing a patient-centric Green Deal, including through:
- Accelerating the roll out of renewable energies and smart clean energy infrastructures considering that continuous access to renewable energies and heat in sufficient quantities and affordable prices are a precondition for decarbonising healthcare, including the medical technology sector.
- Fostering collaboration and partnerships among all healthcare actors to drive system change.
- Leveraging the transformational synergies of the Green and Digital agendas to increase overall system efficiencies and sustainability performance.
- Truly harmonising rules to complete the European Single Market.
- Enhancing a sustainable finance framework to support research & innovation on e.g., alternative, sustainable and safe materials, efficiency technologies, sustainable packaging, circular products or business models, preventive care, digital twins, green software or AI models.
The Clean Industrial Deal, Industrial Accelerator, Circular Economy Act and Chemicals Industry Package are opportunities for setting in place an enabling framework for healthcare system change. Better consistency and coherence across policy domains, enacting patient-centric and economically viable transition pathways, removing political and regulatory barriers for the circular economy and setting financial incentives at EU and national level are important catalysts for successfully implementing the EU Green Deal in healthcare.
It is about closing innovation launch gaps, as the Draghi Competitiveness Report suggests, to boost Europe’s attractiveness for innovation and to leverage the sector’s striking technology leadership potential. With a patent filed every 30 minutes, the strategic relevance of the medical technology sector for health, sustainable prosperity and competitiveness becomes clear – for patients, the planet and the economy.
