IRELAND’S HEALTH system has been ranked 20th out of 31 European countries for its efforts in relation to empowering patients.
The criteria used by the Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse to measure the performance of different countries included whether patients had an automatic right to a second opinion, access to no-fault malpractice insurance schemes, direct access to specialists and if letters which were sent by specialists to GPs were copied to patients.
It also looked at whether patients had a right to their own medical records, if healthcare law was based on patients’ rights, if healthcare providers in each country were quality rated and if patients had a right to choose from among healthcare providers across the EU.
Denmark came out on top, followed by Germany, Finland and Switzerland.
The Euro Patient Empowerment report, which contains the details, says Denmark’s hospitals have one- to five-star ratings as if they were hotels and their patients are provided with information on case fatality rates on certain diagnoses. Patients also have access to direct-dial telephone numbers of clinic managers.
Countries could score a maximum of 1,000 points. Denmark scored 777 points and Ireland clocked up a total of 604 points, putting it in 20th place behind the UK which was ranked 17th overall.
The report, published yesterday, says the national scores seem to reflect national and organisational cultures and attitudes rather than mirroring how much resources a country was spending on healthcare.
It adds that the way to the top of the league is “not too expensive”, stressing that giving patients more access to information costs little to introduce.
However it does stress its findings should be treated with care as there is “a shortage of pan-European, uniform set procedures for data gathering”.
The Health Consumer Powerhouse is a private company providing consumer analysis and information. The report was supported by what it describes as an “unrestricted grant” from Novartis.