By Martin Banks - 8th September 2011
The economic crisis has wiped out years of economic and social progress
Alojz Peterle
The EU has been urged to tackle the issue of "unnecessary overmedical" treatments in Europe.
Speaking at a conference in Brussels on Thursday, a health expert said it was "absurd" that a debate was raging on the limits of affordable health services "yet there is blatant and increasing over-treatment in hospitals".
Gunther Leiner said it was an EU-wide issue "which needs to be confronted head-on".
He told the event, organised by the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), that the growing number of unnecessary operations was "especially alarming".
Leiner said that some 80 per cent of back operations were unnecessary with OECD figures showing "enormous" differences across Europe in the number of hip and knee replacements.
Latest data show that last year there were 289 hip operations per 100,000 people in Germany, 243 in Austria - but in Poland 39, and in Cyprus just 15.
Knee operations per 100,000 ranged from 206 in Germany to five in Romania.
Over-prescription of drugs was also becoming chronic, he said especially among elderly patients.
He pointed to a study by Salzburg Medical University which showed that prescriptions issued to patients averaging 82-years old were unnecessary in 36 per cent of cases and in 30 per cent of cases the drugs they were given were inappropriate.
"It is hard to imagine such differences being explained on purely clinical grounds," said Leiner.
He was speaking ahead of the annual EHFG conference to be held in Bad Hofgastein, Austria from 5-8 October.
Speaking at the same event, Austrian S&D MEP Karin Kadenbach called for more investment in prevention.
She said the problems highlighted at the conference presented a "massive" challenge for health policymakers.
Calling for more investment in prevention, she said, "The risks posed by lifestyle diseases are well known, and many are avoidable. That means we are not condemned to suffer from them."
"At present, 97 per cent of public health expenditure worldwide is on treatment, but just three per cent on prevention. This makes no sense. With better prevention, millions of premature deaths could be avoided."
Her comments were echoed by Slovenian MEP Alojz Peterle, who said, "The economic crisis has wiped out years of economic and social progress and exposed structural weaknesses in Europe's economy.
"Worrying health trends mean that one of the most important values in people's lives is increasingly under threat.
"If we wish to improve the general level of health we will need to implement as soon as possible a coherent, cross sectoral health policy which is coordinated between the various levels.
"That is why we have to encourage in particular social innovation that contributes to greater productivity and competitiveness at national and EU level."
