Health Commissioner outlines priorities

The EU’s health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou wishes to ensure that
people have access to high-quality healthcare and to support EU
members in their efforts to make their health systems more
efficient.

Mr Kyprianou sees an “increasing role for Europe in
tackling fundamental issues of healthcare,” with the dual
task of helping patients’ access high-quality care
and supporting member states to improve the efficiency of their
health systems. 

In the view of the commissioner, the consequences of patient
mobility, developments in medical science, the ageing of
European populations as well as rising public expectations,
demand a European response. The extension of the ‘open method of
co-ordination’ to healthcare and long-term care serves this purpose
and so does the establishment of the ‘High Level Group on health
services and medical care’ which has been designed to provide a
“proper mechanism through which actions can be taken”. On the 2005
agenda of the high-level group are the following items:

• cross-border healthcare purchasing and provision (financial
  impact of cross-border care and information to patients)
• health professionals (their continuing professional
  development)
• centres of reference (options and procedures for designating
  centres of reference)
• European health technology assessment (development of common
  information packages, ensuring transferability of assessments and
  sharing expertise)
• information (the use of information and communication
  technologies)
• extending health impact assessment to cover health systems (to
  assess the impact of other policies on health in general)
• patient safety (how to avoid errors and problems) 

Mr Kyprianou drew attention to the lower state of health in the
new member states by comparison with the EU-15. He explained
that, in particular, men’s health is particularly poor in the new
members with a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and
cancer in this population. At the same time, the overall level of
resources invested in healthcare amounts to around 5.8 %
of the GDP in the new members by comparison with the
EU-15 where spending is around 8.6 % of the GDP.

“Health is a productive factor in a competitive economy,” Mr
Kyprianou explained, adding that early investment in health
reduces subsequent costs for the economy as a whole. The structural
funds are already used to support investments in health and
healthcare and their role will be strengthened under the new funds,
he explained.

Finally, Mr Kyprianou underlined the point that “it is not
health which is a cost, but rather sickness”, and that therefore
“improving the populations’s health must become an economic
priority”. In the context of demographic ageing, investment in
prevention and adapting health services to meet the needs of older
people becomes even more important, he explained.

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