Health is an essential human right enshrined in the World Health Organization’s Constitution. Yet almost 75 years after 61 states signed this document, COVID-19 revealed the weaknesses of health systems worldwide, leaving us to face a pandemic of inequalities.

On Tuesday, November 23, SNF Dialogues will held an open discussion on health. Speakers and members of the public who joined the debate live or shared their thoughts online discussed access to quality health care, Greece’s public health system and the role of private initiatives, ethics in the field of health, and more.

The event focused on both the ongoing SNF Health Initiative and the Foundation’s long-standing grantmaking in health around the world, and looked ahead to SNF Nostos Conference 2022, which will be held on June 23 and 24 on the theme of Health. Participants discussed, at snfdialogues.org, the need for the welfare state and the health system to work hand-in-hand to safeguard that most fundamental of human rights, the right to health.

Participants in the discussion were:
• Effy Vayena, Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH), Chair of the Greek National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission
• Marios Themistokleous, General Secretary of Primary Health Care at the Greek Ministry of Health
• Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
• Dr. Panagiotis Koulouvaris, Assistant Professor of the First Orthopaedic Clinic at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), President of NGO Regeneration & Progress, SNF Health Advisor
• Panos Papoulias, Chief Operating Officer of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), SNF Health Initiative Managing Director

The Dialogues webcast  also featured students in the health field.

Watch Dialogues webcast, Health, at snfdialogues.org.

The Dialogues are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou and are held through journalism nonprofit iMEdD (incubator for Media Education and Development).

*The opinions expressed by Dialogues participants, whether representing officially institutions and organizations or themselves, are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) or iMEdD. Speakers’ remarks are made freely, without prior guidance or intervention from the team.