22 Patient mobility and healthcare development
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8682/04
COM(04) 301
| Commission Communication: Follow-up to the high-level reflection process on patient mobility and healthcare developments in the European Union
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| Legal base | — |
| Department | Health |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 3 December 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 42-xx (2003-04), para 5 (18 May 2004)
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| Discussed in Council | 2 June 2004
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
22.1 In December 2003, a group of EU health ministers and representatives
of the European Parliament, patients and others with an interest
in healthcare issued a report on patient mobility and heath care.
Most of the group's recommendations were addressed to the Commission.
In April 2004, the Commission issued this Communication, responding
to the report. When we considered the document in June, we put
a number of questions to the Government and kept the Communication
under scrutiny pending the reply.
The Communication
22.2 The Communication contained the Commission's response to
the group's recommendations and had four main sections:
- European cooperation to enable better use of resources;
- information requirements of patients, professionals
and policy-makers;
- the European contribution to health objectives;
and
- responding to enlargement through investment
in health services and health infrastructure.
22.3 The group had invited the Commission to consider
the development of a permanent mechanism at EU level to support
European cooperation on matters concerned with healthcare. In
response, the Commission said that it had decided to establish
a "High Level Group on Health Services and Medical Care".
22.4 The Commission commented:
"Health services and medical care are
primarily the responsibility of the Member States and should remain
so. However, it is clear … that there is great potential
for cooperation at European level to help patients to have high-quality
healthcare and to help health systems to improve their effectiveness
and efficiency. Respecting national responsibility for health
systems does not mean doing nothing at European level. Rather,
[the proposed new High level Group] can ensure that there are
structures in place to facilitate cooperation where useful and
ensure that where Europe does have an impact on health or health
systems, it does so in a positive way and that those responsible
for achieving health objectives can shape those developments."[72]
The Government's view on the Communication
22.5 The Minister of State for Health at the Department
of Health (Mr John Hutton) told us that most of the action proposed
by the Commission is for information sharing or the use of existing
mechanisms. The Government was considering how the proposed High
Level Group on Health Services and Medical Care might best relate
to the other strands of Community activity affecting healthcare.
Our request for further information
22.6 In May, we reported that we recognised the potential
benefits of the work the Commission proposed, such as the exchange
of experience, cooperation in the evaluation of new drugs and
techniques and helping patients, professionals and policy-makers
to obtain access to necessary information. We noted, however,
that the Communication did not provide any estimate of the cost
of the proposed activities; nor did it explain their relative
priority. We also noted that the Government was reflecting on
the role of the new High Level Group. We asked the Minister to
comment on the points we had noted and to tell us the outcome
of the discussion of the Communication at the Health Council in
June. We kept the document under scrutiny pending his reply.
The Minister's letter of 3 December
22.7 The Minister tells us that, in June, the Council
agreed to the setting up of the High Level Group on Health Services
and Medical Care, reporting directly to the Council.
22.8 The Minister also tells us that the High Level
Group has met four times since July. Its task is to develop proposals
for:
- European cooperation to enable
better use of resources;
- information for patients, professionals and providers;
- access to and quality of care;
- reconciling national objectives with European
obligations; and
- health and the Union's cohesion and structural
funds.
22.9 The Minister says that the following working
groups have been set up to consider, and make proposals to the
High Level Group on:
- cross-border healthcare purchasing
and provision, including the impact of patient mobility on patients,
healthcare providers and governments and how a common understanding
on this can be reached;
- health professionals, including
the potential impact of migration of health care workers within
the European Union;
- centres of reference — the working group
is considering what would be entailed in setting up European centres
of reference which could provide healthcare to patients with rare
diseases calling for a concentration of expertise or special facilities;
- health technology assessment, including the development
of a network of national health technology assessment agencies
and health ministries, enabling an effective exchange of information
between Member States;
- information and e-health — the development
of an EU information strategy to provide information for citizens,
patients, health administrations and authorities; and
- health impact assessment and health systems
— to improve understanding of the impact of EU non-health
policies on health.
22.10 The Minister says that:
"The UK generally welcomes this proposed
programme of activity as a basis for developing concrete practical
co-operation between member states. When firm recommendations
are being made we will clearly need to respond formally as a Member
State. Meanwhile, we have made clear however that whilst we support
cooperation between the Member States in areas like patient mobility
and health technology assessment, we are not in favour of the
development of mandatory guidelines in EU level priority setting
in these areas. This view is shared by many Member States.
"We have also stressed the importance
of not duplicating the work of other groups, particularly the
new High Level Working Group on health to be set up in the Council
and the open method of co-ordination on healthcare and long term
care."
22.11 The Minister adds that, in the Government's
view, the working groups should focus on a smaller number of better-defined
issues, that the work should be regarded as a three or four year
project and that the emphasis should be on the exchange of information,
not new regulation.
Conclusion
22.12 We are grateful to the Minister for his
helpful reply. We consider that the Government's approach to the
High Level Group's work is appropriate and we agree, in particular,
that the priority should be cooperation and information sharing
between Member States, not the development of new mandatory guidelines.
22.13 We have no further questions to put to the
Minister at this stage and we assume that, when the High Level
Group makes its recommendations, they will be put to us for scrutiny.
For these reasons, we are content to clear the document.
72 Page 16 of the Communication. Back
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