Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-23-Speech-4-019"
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"en.20090423.3.4-019"2
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".
This directive is about patients. I cannot emphasise that enough, since we have, of course, been talking about a great many other things in the context of cross-border healthcare: the free movement of medical services and what to do regarding the market in healthcare. That is expressly not what we are talking about now.
We are talking about a pragmatic approach. How can we make the system such that patients benefit from it? And if we do not do that, who will? Patients are in such a weak position. You do not want sick people to have to engage in a battle with cold healthcare bureaucrats, who look at health policy on their spreadsheet, on their computer with its figures and statistics. That must not happen.
That is why this is also a social directive. Cross-border care has, of course, long been possible for anyone who can pay for it, but something needs to be done also for those who cannot pay. That is what we are talking about here today, Mr President.
It is also for these reasons that our group attaches importance to prior authorisation, which is naturally a crucial element here, Mrs Filipiová. I very much appreciate, by the way, that the Council is present here today. Prior authorisation is to be in place not in order to make cross-border care impossible – absolutely not – but, rather, in order to avoid seriously undermining the national systems. We agree with that and we are going further in this matter than we would perhaps normally have done. A compromise is therefore necessary. We consider that there must be exceptions for rare diseases or life-threatening situations on waiting lists. We would like to set down the definition of hospital care on a European level and not separately for each Member State, quite simply in order to give legal certainty to patients and to ensure certainty within the national systems.
Moreover, we are of the opinion that patients who are already so ill should not, if something goes wrong, have to engage in lengthy legal proceedings; instead, a European ombudsman system for patients should be put in place.
On the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety we have of course had a disagreement about this, and I call on all Members on the left to just set ideology aside this time and ensure that we adopt a good directive for patients and take a pragmatic approach. I have listened with great respect to what Mrs Roth-Behrendt said here on this matter.
Finally, many thanks indeed to the rapporteur, Mr Bowis. He has done terrific work and I sincerely hope he gets well soon."@en1
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