THE DEVELOPMENT of centres of excellence around Europe for the treatment of rare diseases is among the main priorities of the EU's new health commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou.
The commissioner told The Irish Timesthere were about 12,000 identified rare diseases, most of which did not have the critical mass to justify an accumulation of rarely needed knowledge on them in local hospitals.
"The cost of new technology for treatments is so high now that it makes little practical or economic sense to try to build up a certain level of knowledge everywhere when instead we can have absolute expertise at a limited number of centres around Europe," she said.
"There is no doubt that secondary and tertiary care can be provided much more effectively in a smaller number of centres of excellence where the development of research and expertise is justified."
In Dublin to meet the Minister for Health Mary Harney late last week, Ms Vassiliou also said it was important for people to be aware they had the right to have procedures in other countries but she did not expect the new cross-border patients rights directive to precipitate a glut of health tourists.
"Research conducted in various countries suggests that the overwhelming majority of people prefer treatment in their own country if possible. But we are aware that in Europe you could have people in different countries living just a few miles apart at the border and it makes sense that such people can avail of treatments close to them even if in a different country," she said.
"That is the practical reason behind the directive; it is not there to encourage a large exodus of people across Europe looking for medical treatments, and it should be stressed that if procedures are not funded in one's own country - I am thinking of cosmetic surgery for example - then they cannot be availed of elsewhere under this system," she added.
The new directive could have significant cost implications as a patient can be reimbursed for treatment only to the level of the cost of the same procedure in their own country. When asked if she envisaged a time when the EU might pay the balance where there is a large discrepancy between the prices, she rejected the possibility.
"All that we in the commission are doing is directing the different countries to achieve co-operation as well as higher and more uniform standards but we have no further input into the decisions of the different states or their policies than that and we certainly cannot be seen to subvent medical procedures in certain countries," she stressed.