Healthcare Across Eu Borders Report

A report that welcomes the proposal from the European Commission for a Directive on patients' rights to cross-border healthcare but calls for improvements and warns that, due to the unpredictable impact of the provisions in the Directive, it must be carefully monitored upon implementation.

A report that welcomes the proposal from the European Commission for a Directive on patients' rights to cross-border healthcare but calls for improvements and warns that, due to the unpredictable impact of the provisions in the Directive, it must be carefully monitored upon implementation.

People have always travelled within Europe for work and leisure, although never before with the current intensity. Now, however, they are travelling for many other reasons, including the quest for key services such as health care. Whatever the reason for travelling, one question they ask is "If I fall ill, will the health care I receive be of a high standard?" This book examines, for the first time, the systems that have been put in place in all of the European Union's 27 Member States. The picture it paints is mixed. Some have well developed systems, setting standards based on the best available evidence, monitoring the care provided, and taking action where it falls short. Others need to overcome significant obstacles.

Government response to HL Paper 30-I, 4th report of session 2008-09 (ISBN 9780104014356)

The provision of effective health care to linguistically and culturally diverse migrant populations has been identified as a crucial public health issue. This scoping review examines strategies which have been implemented and evaluated to address communication barriers experienced by refugees and migrants in health care settings across the WHO European Region. Four main types of strategy were identified: cultural mediation interpretation translation of health information and guidance and training for health care providers. These have been used to support access to health care management of specific diseases and promotion of health across a wide variety of health care settings. Intersectoral collaboration was seen as important in the development and implementation of strategies. Policy considerations include the development of national policies and the promotion of intersectoral dialogue to augment the knowledge base and resolve the common issues identified such as provision of training and confusion regarding the roles of mediators/interpreters that affect strategy implementation and evaluation.

Cross-border health care has become a much more prominent phenomenon in the European Union. When in need of medical treatment, patients increasingly act as informed consumers who claim the right to choose their own providers, including those beyond borders. This book explores such trends and also looks at the legal framework for cross-border care as well as examining some of the uncertainties surrounding it. After the adoption of the Directive on the application of patient rights in cross-border care, Member States will now have to start implementing these provisions. One of the challenges will be to see how various national practices related to access, benefits and tariffs, quality and safety, patient rights, cooperation etc. will be affected by these new rules. The information and analysis presented in the study can be of considerable use to policy-makers and those with an interest in key aspects of cross-border health care to accompany or follow this process.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.