European Liberal Democrats launch initiative for a European Patient Rights Charter

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Oct 2006

A month into the start of the public consultation on cross-border health services, European Liberal Democrats are pushing for inclusion of patient rights in the draft legislation. An oral question tabled today asks the Commission how it plans to address a number of key areas in its upcoming proposal on patient mobility.

"Rather than suffering patiently in national queues all Europeans should be able to seek out alternatives wherever in Europe they can be found. Some - tired of waiting for months on end - are doing that already but often find themselves thrown into a legal limbo", said European Liberal Democrat Leader Graham Watson. "Questions such as who pays for cross-border healthcare and whose rules apply still do not have European answers. The draft legislation which will be put forward next year will address these issues. We hope it will go the extra mile and give Europeans a uniform package of patient rights".

"Presently there is insufficient clarity about the right to compensation and duty of care when something goes wrong in cross-border healthcare. In such instances, cases of malpractice or medical error are tackled differently by different national regulators much to the detriment of patients" While fully respecting Member States competence to decide how to organise and finance their health systems, safety and quality of the medical care in the internal market falls in the scope of Art.152 ensuring high level of health protection for EU citizens, said EP Observer Dr. Antonia Parvanova, (NMSII, Bulgaria). "There should be a uniform EU-wide procedure to follow and set compensation rules which should be enshrined in a charter of European patient rights complementing existing national provisions".

ENDS

Note to Editors

On 26 September the European Commission started a public consultation on how to ensure legal certainty regarding cross-border health services under Community law. The consultation process will last until 31 January 2007 and will lead to Commission proposals later in the year.

It addresses the conditions according to which cross-border health care must be authorised and paid for, the provision of information to patients about treatments available in other MS, which health authority is responsible for supervising cross-border health care in different circumstances, responsibilities for any harm caused by healthcare and compensation.

The objective of this initiative of the Commission is to provide legal clarity and certainty regarding the application of the treaty provisions on free movement of health services following the ECJ rulings in that area