The governments’ doctors: The roles and responsibilities of chief medical officers in the European Union

Abstract

The regular meetings of the chief medical officers (CMOs) from the European Union's (EU's) 27 Member States provide an important forum to address issues of common interest affecting Europe's populations. Yet there is no universally agreed role for a CMO. This article describes the findings of a study, based on interviews with key informants and documentary analysis that sought to describe their diverse roles. For the purpose of this article, CMOs are defined as those sent by their governments to the regular EU meetings of CMOs. Four broad categories of countries were identified: those whose CMO is the most senior doctor in the health ministry, in some cases with responsibility spanning all of government; where they are head of a division within the health ministry; head of a separate body such as a national board of health; and countries where no single individual can be identified. Although the diversity of health systems means that these roles cannot be harmonised, there is scope to explore what can be learnt from the different approaches.