European Accreditation of Centres

ČSH

The Society Council received from Brussels a copy of a letter that the European Haemophilia Consortium sent to the Minister of Health Svatopluk Nemecek. It announces the completion of a three-year joint programme with the European Commission, the result of which is the recognition of European accreditation for national centres. The criteria for granting accreditation were clearly established at the outset by experts; all national federations, including the Czech Hemophilia Society, received the conditions and passed them on to the centres. The Czech Hemophilia Society did so as well and invited centres interested in international accreditation to submit their applications.

European centres are also of two types: the Comprehensive Care Centre (CCC -- or now ECCC) and the Haemophilia Treatment Centre (EHTC). The higher-level ECCC must meet the requirement of having all specialties available, such as surgery, dentistry, orthopaedics, physiotherapy, and similar. The ECCC must also register at least 40 people with severe hemophilia or von Willebrand disease, while the EHTC must register at least 10 people with severe hemophilia.

In the letter to the Minister of Health, the EHC states that four centres in the Czech Republic received accreditation -- the ECCC status was granted to UHKT Prague and the university hospitals in Brno and Ostrava, while the University Hospital Plzen may use the EHTC designation. European centre status was granted on the basis of a completed questionnaire; no European authority verified the accuracy of the information, relying on the truthfulness of the data provided. Otherwise, the University Hospital Brno would likely not have received the status, because despite all efforts by the Czech Hemophilia Society and the Brno hematologists, the critically important orthopaedic department still does not function there, and its role is filled by the Prague hemophilia centre.

The letter also includes a list of all 113 centres from 31 countries. List of European accredited centres.

Familiarizing yourself with it can be very useful when travelling through European countries.