WHO NETWORK OF HEALTH PROMOTING HOSPITALS ( HPH )

HPH combines a vision, a concept and a set of strategies for implementing health promotion with networking activities for hospital development to improve health gain. In 1986, the re-orientation of health care settings was formulated as one of the major action areas of health promotion in the WHO Ottawa Charter >>. WHO initiated conceptual discussions around HPH in 1988, and in 1989 the first pilot health promoting hospital project was set up at the Rudolfstiftung Hospital in Vienna, Austria. Two years later, the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals was initiated by WHO with LBISHM >> designated as its first co-ordinating centre. The Budapest Declaration >> on Health Promoting Hospitals was launched in 1991 as the first policy document of the network, and a European pilot project with 20 participating hospitals from 11 countries was conducted from 1993-1997.

The following hospitals participated in the project:
Austria: Rudolfstiftung Hospital, Vienna
Czech Republic: City Hospital, Prague
France: Vaugirard Hospital, Paris
Germany: City Hospital, Chemnitz;
      Alten Eichen Hospital, Hamburg;
      St. Bernward Hospital, Hildesheim;
      St. Irmingard Hospital, Prien;
      Philipps Hospital, Riedstadt
Great Britain:
     England: Preston Acute Hospital NHS Trust, Preston
     Northern Ireland: Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Londonderry
     Scotland: Stobhill NHS Trust, Glasgow
     Wales: Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli
Greece: Areteion Hospital, Athens
Hungary: Koranyi Hospital, Budapest
Ireland: James Connolly Hospital, Dublin
Italy: Vittore Buzzi Children's Hospital, Milan;
      University Hospital, Padova
Poland: Upper-Silesian Rehabilitation Centre Repty, Ustron;
      Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw
Sweden: University Hospital, Linköping

At the end of the pilot project, a new policy document of the network was launched: the Vienna Recommendations on Health Promoting Hospitals >> (WHO 1997). In 1995, national / regional networks of HPH started to develop in 24 countries so far, partly supported by the European Commission (DG SANCO). The International Network consists now of more than 600 member hospitals in 34 national / regional networks:

Many more hospitals are regularly participating in the annual international HPH conferences which have been organised since 1993 in Warsaw, Padova, Linköping, Londonderry, Vienna, Darmstadt, Swansea, Athens, Copenhagen, Bratislava, and - in 2003 - in Florence. A semi-annual HPH-Newsletter has also been issued since 1993 (available on the web at www.hph-hc.cc).

The network is coordinated by the WHO European Office for Integrated Health Care Services in Barcelona and scientifically supported by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion in Hospitals and Health Care Services in Vienna.

BACK TO TOP