About: health systems Archives

Member states will need to adapt their national health systems to prepare for the expected increase in long-term health services due to the EU's ageing demographics, according to a new study published by the Commission.

EU data and a World Health Organisation (WHO) report have highlighted the need for improved health systems to deal with a rise in drug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

Doctors, patients and citizens alike are urging the Commission to come up with a promised directive on the provision of cross-border health services. They insist that official discussions on the proposal must begin, despite fears they could trigger major negative EU campaigning by some MEPs ahead of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

A long-awaited proposal to codify the circumstances under which EU patients can legitimately be covered for treatment received in other member states could be either redrafted, withdrawn or downgraded, EURACTIV has learnt.

Technologies to deliver healthcare at home can ease the burden of chronic disease in an ageing Europe, but an integrated network enabling interconnection of different medical devices and linking patients to doctors and hospitals needs to be put in place first, argue public sector representatives. 

Healthcare systems around the world will become unsustainable by 2015, unless governments adopt new accountability standards on how the money is being spent, argues an IBM report, echoing earlier calls for more transparency in public health funding.

Establishing electronic health records and connecting the information with hospital and remote environments such as the physician's office and private homes should be the top priorities for improving the quality of healthcare over the next two years, according to senior healthcare professionals.

The differences between the different European health care systems justify the mobilisation of stakeholders at EU level for obvious political and moral reasons, writes Arnaud Senn for the Robert Schuman Foundation.

Nearly half (41%) of Brussels-based opinion leaders believe that member states may share a common healthcare system in the long-term.

An expert panel report calling for more competition to improve efficiency and transparency of healthcare systems has received a cautious welcome from stakeholders.

"The core challenge in cross-broder access to health care is to ensure that political goals combine both the objectives of health-care systems and those of the internal market," the Commission has stated.

A report presents government recommendations on how to invest taxpayers' money more effectively to improve the quality of health care and to ensure the financial sustainability of health systems.

The EU executive has launched a public consultation on the future EU framework for health services, to know where greater legal certainty is needed and how to support co-operation between national health systems.

The first meeting of the High Level Pharmaceutical Forum (HLPF) is set to be difficult. In order to control the health costs, the member states are likely to block any change on the topics under discussion: pricing of medicines, the assessment of relative effectiveness of drugs and information for patients, argues MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis in an interview with EURACTIV.

Germany's grand coalition has hammered out a reform of the country's underfunded health care system, which relies on a mixture of contribution raises and, for the first time, tax funding.

The EU public health care systems should improve their capacities to measure performance in order to provide users with comparable data, according to the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006.

The first survey ever on citizens' perceptions and experiences of medical errors in the EU shows that nearly 80% of Europeans find medical errors an important problem in their country.

As the vote on the services directive in the Parliament's plenary approaches, MEPs are facing one last lobbying effort. While medical practitioners are opposed to the draft law, patients' associations would like to have health services included.

According to the Commission, the EU needs more co-ordination on health issues to bridge the broad health inequalities gaps across Europe and to fight against health risks such as pandemics.

The 2005 European health forum says that immigrants have become the biggest problem group in public health care systems and refers to the health of immigrants as an indicator of successful integration.

The Commission proposal for the EU Health programme 2007-2013 aligns future health action with the overall EU objectives of prosperity, solidarity and security and aims to further exploit synergies with other policies.

The EuroHealth consumer Index 2005 ranks the national healthcare of the twelve largest European countries according to how 'user-friendly' they are.

In comparison with the Slovaks, Hungarians and Poles, the Czechs
are the most positive about their health systems, a Central
European Opinion Research Group study has shown.

A new report argues that the process of accession to the EU has
contributed to lower levels
of deaths attributable to the quality of medical
care in the Central and Eastern European new
members.