Around twenty CEOs from CataloniaBio & HealthTech met on Tuesday 10 October at the HUB cambraDigital (Barcelona Chamber of Commerce) for the latest edition of the CEO Council. The special guest at this edition was Xavier Prats, current president of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital de Sant Pau (Barcelona); the welcome and moderation of the conversation was given by Joan Puig de Dou, CEO of Kymos and President of CataloniaBio & HealthTech.

The session with Xavier Prats is the fourth CEO Council meeting in 2023, this time to analyse the health system from a European perspective. He currently chairs the Board ofTrustees of the Hospital de Sant Pau, but Prats has spent most of his professional career at the European Commission in Brussels, including as Director General for Health and Food Safety (2015-2018).  This CEo Council edition complements the conversations in previous, with Antón Costas, Boi Ruiz and Núria Mas as guests.

Xavier Prats reviewed the main features ofthe different traditions of health systems in Europe and reflected on how, nowadays, they are becoming increasingly closer to each other, as the drivers of health are also becoming closer: the same types of illnesses, aging, technology as an ally and talent management. After reviewing some of the similarities and differences in figures between the various European countries, he focused on the European Union's actions and policies in the field of health. In this regard, Prats shared conclusions from his experience in Brussels: what does the EU do and what can it do in terms of health policies? How do the member states see it and what are the legitimacy balances? How do health managers in the member states see it? Or what scope is there from the EU, for example, to intervene in drug management policies?

Looking at Spain and Catalonia in particular, and at the same time from the point of view of the relationship with the EU, Prats took a photograph of the state of health policies and the health of the system. Finally, he focused on the case of the Hospital de Sant Pau, its current occupation, as a paradigmatic example of some of the issues that need to be addressed in terms of health management. After this portrait, and after sharing his vision and experiences, the debate was opened with the attendees, who dealt with issues as diverse as the alignment of policies towards the EU, the status of tertiary hospitals and primary care in the country, the entry and reception of gender policies in the health sector, or the role of political-private partnerships in the ecosystem.

Xavier Prats ended his speech by mentioning an association in which he is involved and whose work he wanted to share with the CEO Council audience. This is Dones Mentores, a non-profit association that works for the eradication of gender-based violence by applying mentoring with a gender perspective. It was founded in Barcelona in 2017 by Lores López, driven by the conviction that no one understands the struggle, needs and hopes of a victim of gender violence better than another victim. Mentoring by volunteer women with first-hand experience of violence is the most effective way to help other vulnerable women survivors to achieve economic and emotional independence and to become fully active members of society.

Once again, an example of the importance of having spaces for reflection and debate, which allow to talk and share opinions on topics of interest, while helping to strengthen the relationships between the various actors in the system. Through these meeting spaces CataloniaBio & HealthTech works to strengthen the health ecosystem in Catalonia.