HCP Facts and News April/Mai 2010
In Focus
Cross-border care agreement, Internet trade in medicines under way
In the delicate Brussels landscape of patient information dimensions, there are some new movements:
There now seems to be an agreement between the Spanish presidency and the Commission to move ahead with a framework for patient cross-border mobility, similar to the Swedish compromise shot down by the Council before last Christmas. The Spanish concerns about the financial responsibility for healthcare to foreigners living in Spain is said to have been settled as well as how to handle privately owned, non-contracted care providers.
If the Council accepts this new proposal the final process will be a matter to the incoming Belgian presidency during this autumn. Still you can expect some governments to express fear of the cost for building national information systems for cross-border care. If the present outlines for these systems will become reality it would mean a significantly raised level of information quality in the coming few years, obliging governments to deliver transparency of healthcare performance and outcomes to patients (support for cross-border care seeking, EHCI 2009). The secondary effects can over time become dynamic, offering a platform for a EU healthcare services market.
Also in the field of information about medicines you can find initiatives. Finland seems to be interested in opening the planned EU website for pharmaco vigilance also to patient information beyond the level of Product Characteristics Summaries (PCS) and package leaflets. That could be an idea of interest to Sweden and other countries with higher information to patient ambitions. As the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee (ENVI) meets May 4 to address the pharmaco vigilance proposal we will learn more about such initiatives.
There are expectations for a Commission initiative - also promised by Commissioner Dalli during his EP hearing - to make a constructive move really addressing the unequal access to information of medicines within the EU. The present conditions are not sustainable, with a large portion of EU patients (with knowledge in English, i.e.) accessing information today banned within the EU at websites outside of EU jurisdiction (as shown by HCP at the EP seminar January 12). The Information to patient report by MEP Christofer Fjellner, adding little substantial change to the present conditions though applying a more constructive tone, will be on the vote of the ENVI June 22 and in the EP plenary early September.
Forged pharmaceuticals and parallel trade in medicines are two themes ahead of the ITP issue in the EU process line, but all these matters interact in many ways and movements with regard to one topic might affect others. It goes as well for the regulation of Internet trade with medicines where the Commission seems determined to push for an internal market angle while there are many different opinions in the EP and among member governments how to proceed.
A great challenge to EU policy formers and regulators will be creating an integrated totality of these various packages, providing a consistent foundation for the future healthcare of Europe.
Comment on the UK decision about: Paying for organs?
One of the priorities of the Spanish EU presidency is to create a joint framework on organ donations and transplants. Running one of the best systems in Europe Spain here has expert qualifications and a proposal will soon be presented. But as the compensation issue is highly sensitive you should not expect any suggestions on pay for organs (beyond reimbursement of some costs related to the donation). The Commission strategy is that Spanish-style procedures will increase the capacity to harvest organs from deceased people and to motivate a larger share of the population to register for donation.
As the pay for organs issue now is on the table (through a well reputed UK player close to the National Health Service, NHS) you can expect a debate about it in the EP - though the mere idea is appalling to most MEPs and Brussels policy formers. At the same time the transplantation technique develops rapidly and the potential for meeting the growing demand is huge - given there is an inflow of organs to meet the expectations for life-saving transplantations. Here there are very different conditions within EU, a situation causing tensions calling for a solution.