Strengthening Resilience in the Health Sector

In January 2023, the Health System Advisory Council published its latest report. It analyses the extent to which the German healthcare system is prepared for future crises and what changes are required to strengthen its resilience. Rarely has our country been hit by so many exogenous shocks at the same time. The COVID-19 pandemic, the war against Ukraine, climate change and the resulting disrupted supply chains, energy shortages, heat waves and forest fires pose challenges for practically all areas of life. However, they also affect people’s health. Despite the widespread perception before the pandemic that Germany is well organised and well prepared to deal with unexpected events, the health system did not perform as well as expected. One key result of the report is that problems mainly lie in the areas of data availability and use, implementation of well-known solutions and communication.