Healthcare without borders
EPECS is a network of regional patient organisations in Europe.
Do you get an appointment sooner across the border than with a doctor in your own country? Do specialists for knee surgery there have a better reputation than those closer to where you live? There are many reasons to go to a doctor in a neighbouring country, but often it involves bureaucratic hassle and annoyance. EPECS fights these restrictions. We work towards a strong position of our members in the cross-border and European healthcare. (more..)
National Contact Points (NCP): Still a lot of work to do
Since November 2013 all EU member states (MS) must have a National Contact Point (NCP) to guarantee the rights of patients in cross-border care according to the EU patients’ rights Directive from 2011. In collaboration with Maastricht University we recently published a follow-up study about how EU member states comply with the legal requirements when implementing NCPs. The main results:
- In February 2014, 4 out of 28 MS still didn’t have an NCP in action and one under construction.
- Many of the NCP’s only consist of a website. Just two have an option for patients to either make an appointment or visit the NCP.
EPECS is still somewhat disappointed about the way the MS executed article 6 of the directive: installment of a NCP. We have the impression that a few MS were very willing to inform the patient as much as possible, but that many MS did only what was strictly necessary. Form our point of view there is still a lot of work to do in the MS themselves and concerning a transparent option for patient mobility in Europe.
Downloads: Our Letter on European Commission, 10 december 2014 // Activity report Study
ePanel: your opinion counts!
What is your experience as a patient in the border area? What do you expect from medical care across the border? Strengthen the lobby for patients and support our work by taking part in ePanel. (more…)
