Thank you for the invitation to speak here on behalf of the International

Alliance of Patients Organizations (IAPO). IAPO is a unique global alliance

of organisations of groups of patients. Our vision is patient centred health

care throughout the world. Patient centred health care can only be achieved

when we take into account the preferences of the individual patients.

However there is a overwhelming unison as far as patient everywhere want to

be treated as individuals with the right to have control over there own

health, the way the answer this need might be different per world region and

per individual per country. IAPO is a sponsor of the Health Promoting

Hospitals Initiative since a couple of years and we are very happy to also

sponsor this Migrant Friendly Hospitals project and the future of it within

the Health Promoting Hospitals. IAPO considers that patients organisations

itself are seldom patient friendly in the sense that they attract patients

from the migrant or minority populations. We have to find ways to include

them in our work and one of the ways of doing this for IAPO is our

cooperation with this initiative and with all like minded stakeholders,

which is addressed in our policies as one of the strands of our mission. To

day is a great day. The Amsterdam Declaration is a fine document to address

the issue of the migrant friendliness of hospitals and it has been a

pleasure to follow the development of it within a group of devoted hospital

employees. We will do what we can do to roll out the message of The

Amsterdam Declaration and we will certainly give attention to it on our

web-site. We want to stress that it is important to give attention to the

needs of migrants and minorities, but in general we believe that true

migrant friendly hospitals are patient friendly hospitals or the other way

around: true patient friendly hospitals are by definition also migrant

friendly hospitals, since they will take the individual patient as their

concern. IAPO believes that information is key to achieve patient (migrant)

centred health care and that it is a human right to get it and so, we are

very pleased to see that the information need is an integral part of The

Amsterdam Declaration. The Amsterdam Declaration truly is a potential

important step forward, but the real work has only to start now. It is our

responsibility to disseminate and to promote the implementation of the

recommendations of the Declaration. Here we all have to work together,

patients, professionals in the hospitals and all other interested parties. I

wish you and us all a successful follow-up of work done so far.