Group set up to facilitate mobility of patients between EU countries
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《英国医生杂志》
European Union health ministers are backing moves to make it easier for patients to have medical treatment abroad, and be reimbursed for the costs involved, if they have to wait an undue length of time for an operation in their own country.
The prospect of being treated on the NHS in another EU country has been opened up by a series of judgments from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
But while respecting the new rights that the rulings have given patients, governments are insisting that nothing should undermine their responsibility for managing their own healthcare systems and giving priority to their own citizens.
Striking a careful balance between an individual抯 rights and the organisation of independent national health services will be the challenge facing a high level group of national experts chaired by the European Commission, which is expected to begin its work in the late summer.
At their meeting in Luxembourg on 2 June, EU health ministers gave their support to the creation of the group, which will contain one senior health official from each of the 25 EU member states, as "a welcome immediate step" to consider practical solutions to the complexities that increased patient mobility will bring.
The group抯 initial mandate is clear. It will have to find ways of ensuring access to high quality health care for all citizens on a basis of equity and solidarity while taking account of the "available medical competence and resources."
It is being asked to examine the information available on existing bilateral and multilateral arrangements for providing health care, including the possibility of networking between the different cross-border health projects now in operation.
It will also have to consider the issue of patients?rights. How much information should they be entitled to receive on the treatment they will be given and what formalities will they be required to follow?
Given that such issues vary greatly from country to country, ministers believe patients would benefit from greater transparency about health care, protection of personal data, compensation, informed consent, and the rights and obligations of professionals towards patients.
Thought will be given to ways of developing further cooperation in the healthcare field, including the exchange of experience, good practice, and postoperative information.
It is not just rulings from the European Union抯 highest court which is making medical treatment in another member state a growing reality. The introduction of the European health insurance card on 1 June, which replaces the E111 form, will greatly simplify the procedures involved in accessing health care during temporary stays in another EU country.
In addition, the increasing use of information technology, dubbed "e-health," is widening considerably patients?horizons on the treatment they can receive.(Brussels Rory Watson)
The prospect of being treated on the NHS in another EU country has been opened up by a series of judgments from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
But while respecting the new rights that the rulings have given patients, governments are insisting that nothing should undermine their responsibility for managing their own healthcare systems and giving priority to their own citizens.
Striking a careful balance between an individual抯 rights and the organisation of independent national health services will be the challenge facing a high level group of national experts chaired by the European Commission, which is expected to begin its work in the late summer.
At their meeting in Luxembourg on 2 June, EU health ministers gave their support to the creation of the group, which will contain one senior health official from each of the 25 EU member states, as "a welcome immediate step" to consider practical solutions to the complexities that increased patient mobility will bring.
The group抯 initial mandate is clear. It will have to find ways of ensuring access to high quality health care for all citizens on a basis of equity and solidarity while taking account of the "available medical competence and resources."
It is being asked to examine the information available on existing bilateral and multilateral arrangements for providing health care, including the possibility of networking between the different cross-border health projects now in operation.
It will also have to consider the issue of patients?rights. How much information should they be entitled to receive on the treatment they will be given and what formalities will they be required to follow?
Given that such issues vary greatly from country to country, ministers believe patients would benefit from greater transparency about health care, protection of personal data, compensation, informed consent, and the rights and obligations of professionals towards patients.
Thought will be given to ways of developing further cooperation in the healthcare field, including the exchange of experience, good practice, and postoperative information.
It is not just rulings from the European Union抯 highest court which is making medical treatment in another member state a growing reality. The introduction of the European health insurance card on 1 June, which replaces the E111 form, will greatly simplify the procedures involved in accessing health care during temporary stays in another EU country.
In addition, the increasing use of information technology, dubbed "e-health," is widening considerably patients?horizons on the treatment they can receive.(Brussels Rory Watson)