Partners for Patients NGO (PFP.NGO) received an endorsement from the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) of the African Union (AU) to co-create an African patient-focused healthcare access agenda.

Together, PFP.NGO and PAP have laid the foundation for a collaborative-legislative framework to address the challenges faced by medical patients in Africa, aiming to create and adopt a new model for research funding and supporting treatment outcomes and diagnostics to transform the African healthcare system into a more efficient and financially sustainable model.

Mission:

• To improve quality of life across the continent of Africa by making meaningful gains in health outcomes, literacy at all levels of science, and participation in medical research-related healthcare delivery.
• To use focused, collaborative, multi-level infrastructure-building and capacity-building exercises in medical sciences to improve education and health outcomes due to infectious diseases and cancer and in turn foster regional economic strengthening that is aligned with the African Union’s development plan.

Goals:

• Reduce the gap between Africa and high-income economies with regard to the level of access and uptake of medicines and diagnostics.
• Change the lives of patients in Africa with optimal healthcare for patients, regardless of ability to pay. This includes care that is timely, high- quality and patient centered.
• Support and endorse the entry or re-entry of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics in Africa by reducing bureaucracy.
• Improve collaboration, communication, coordination of services, and continuity of care by supporting efficient, real-time communication of patient information among those caring for the patient with the private sector.
• Foster patient engagement and engagement between parliamentarians and healthcare practitioners.
• Increase the patients’ voice in drug development because there is growing agreement among government, industry, and others regarding the importance of the patient voice.
• Improve efforts to pay more attention to the views and experiences of patients, making sure the patient’s views and experiences are accounted for and considered in decision-making.