Crisis preparedness is no longer about preparing for a single, exceptional event. Across Europe, hospitals are facing a growing range of pressures that can disrupt the delivery of care, from infectious disease outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance to cyber threats, climate-related events, geopolitical instability, supply-chain disruptions and workforce shortages.

The experience of recent years has shown how quickly these pressures can translate into real challenges for hospitals. A pandemic can place unprecedented demands on clinical services; a cyberattack can disrupt essential systems; a heatwave can put additional pressure on patients, staff and infrastructure; and shortages of medicines or other critical supplies can threaten the continuity of care.

These different risks may require different responses, but they raise the same question: how prepared are our hospitals to continue operating and providing essential care when normal ways of working are disrupted?

For the European University Hospital Alliance, strengthening this capacity is an important part of the wider discussion on the future of healthcare systems in Europe and the role university hospitals can play in driving system-level change for resilience, crisis-preparedness, and long-term sustainability.

Why University Hospitals Matter

University hospitals sit at the intersection of specialised patient care, research, education and innovation. They provide care for the most complex patients, train the next generation of health professionals, conduct research and clinical trials, and increasingly act as important hubs of innovation within their regions and healthcare systems. This unique position also gives them a particular responsibility to strengthen resilience, not only within their own organisations, but across the wider health systems of which they are part.

The same characteristics that make university hospitals complex organisations also make them important actors in crisis preparedness. Their clinical expertise, research capacity, educational role and connections with universities and innovation ecosystems give them a strong basis for developing and testing new approaches to emerging challenges.

European Cooperation: Building Resilience Together

Many of the challenges facing hospitals today do not stop at national borders. A new infectious disease, a cyber threat, disruption to critical supply chains, or the effects of climate change can affect several countries at the same time. No hospital can address all these challenges alone.

The EU is operating in a time of growing uncertainty and increasingly interconnected threats, any of which could trigger a cross-border health crisis. The current threat and risk landscape is complex and continuously evolving, shaped by megatrends such as climate change, demographic transition, globalisation, urbanisation, migration, habitat destruction and changing geopolitical relations. These megatrends are often interlinked, increasing not only the likelihood of health threats occurring, but also the vulnerability of populations to their effects.

European collaboration is therefore crucial to creating joint arrangements for governance, capacities and resources to prevent, prepare for and respond to such events.

One of EUHA’s key strengths is its ability to bring together leading university hospitals from different European countries and create a space for collaboration. Members can share experiences, compare approaches, identify common challenges and work together on solutions.

This is particularly important in times of crisis, but it may be even more valuable before a crisis occurs. Preparedness is stronger when organisations do not have to start from scratch. Learning from another hospital’s experience can help identify vulnerabilities earlier, avoid repeating mistakes and accelerate the adoption of approaches that have already been tested elsewhere.

From Discussion to Action

These issues will be at the centre of an EUHA event this November, hosted and organised by Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), in partnership with the Chair in Medical Crisis Management of Sorbonne University – Health, as part of the EUHA Members’ Assembly week.

On 5 November 2026, EUHA members will come together in Paris for a dedicated symposium, the “EUHA Members’ Assembly Symposium: Crisis Preparedness.” The programme will look at some of the practical challenges facing university hospitals and will bring together a diverse group of experts from across the EUHA community and beyond, including heads of emergency medicine, construction and infrastructure leaders, architects, security directors, digital resilience experts, sociologists, and representatives from the French Ministry of Health. Their different perspectives will help explore crisis preparedness from clinical, operational, infrastructural, digital and human perspectives.

The Members’ Assembly Symposium is an opportunity for EUHA members to share experiences and approaches, but also to ask a broader question: what can university hospitals do together to strengthen preparedness across Europe?

For EUHA, this conversation comes at an important moment. The Alliance’s new strategy identifies resilience and crisis preparedness as a strategic priority, reflecting the growing recognition that university hospitals have a role to play in strengthening the resilience of European health systems.

The next crisis may take a form we cannot yet anticipate. What we can do is ensure that our hospitals are better prepared to face it. By strengthening resilience, sharing knowledge and working across borders, university hospitals can turn preparedness into a shared European capacity—and help build health systems that are ready for what comes next.