On 9 April 2026, EUREGHA hosted the spring meeting of its Working Group on Cross-Border Healthcare, bringing together regional representatives and experts to exchange on current practices in cross-border cooperation and to further advance the network’s collective work on its forthcoming position paper on cross-border healthcare. The session provided an opportunity to reflect and foster on practical challenges and policy opportunities related to patient-centered care, governance arrangements and access to care in border regions. The meeting was divided into two parts and gave the opportunity for the WG members to advance their ideas and expertise:
Presentation of the Cross-Prehab Project
- The first part featured Monika Kyselová (Health Agency of Lower Austria – HealthAcross initiative) presenting the Cross-Prehab Project, an Interreg-supported initiative led by HealthAcross/Lower Austria in cooperation with Slovak partners. The programme focuses on improving clinical pathways for hip and knee replacement surgery through a structured preoperative rehabilitation approach. The aim of the project is to strengthen cooperation between primary and secondary care across the cross-border area. The presentation highlighted how the programme responds to persistent challenges in post-operative rehabilitation, including long waiting times and the limited availability of outpatient services. Patients are supported through a comprehensive prehabilitation model covering pain management, physical activity and practical preparation for recovery after surgery. To strengthen the cooperation between Lower Austria and Slovak partners, bilingual materials and instructional videos have also been developed jointly to promote accessibility and continuity of care. Particular attention was given to the project’s evaluation framework which combines cost-benefit analysis with the assessment of patient experience, the analytical work considers elements such as hospitalisation costs and sick leave costs, while patient-centred outcomes are measured through validated questionnaries. The discussion also underlined the project’s relevance for EUREGHA’s wider reflections on value-based healthcare and its potential to provide useful insights for broader exchange across the network.
EUREGHA’s Draft Position Paper on Cross-Border Healthcare
- The second part of the meeting was dedicated to the consolidation of the EUREGHA’s draft position paper on cross-border healthcare, reflections and contributions were provided by WG members: Gyula Ocskay (CESCI), David Hawkins (Northern Ireland Brussels Executive Office), Valeria Senatra (AGENAS) and Adriana Perez Fortis (CBI) discussing policy priorities and identifying areas for refinement. The discussion focused on the need to strengthen references to local and regional authorities as co-designers of cross-border healthcare solutions, increase the visibility of EGTCs as governance tools and better connect governance, legal frameworks and funding opportunities in the context of the next MFF. Participants also emphasized the importance of highlighting the role of health insurance bodies and National Contact Points, while complementing the paper with concrete territorial examples and project experiences. The meeting also touched on workforce mobility, administrative and legal barriers and the importance of reflecting the diversity of territorial realities in cross-border healthcare. Members suggested several targeted drafting improvements, including a stronger introductory framing of the multidimensional benefits of cross-border healthcare, the inclusion of a COVID-19 cooperation example and more constructive wording regarding the limits of one-size-fits-all approaches.
The meeting reaffirmed the value of continued cooperation and knowledge exchange within the WG, both to support the development of evidence-based policy positions and to ensure that regional and local perspectives remain central in shaping cross-border healthcare at EU level.
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