New report finds Dutch healthcare system best in EU

Portugal, Malta and Cyprus are among several member states which ‘struggle to deliver adequate levels of care’, according to a new EU-wide report.

The report puts the Netherlands at the top of a healthcare ‘league table’, saying US president-elect Barrack Obama would do well to use the Dutch system as a source of inspiration for his own country.

Also highlighted is Estonia, described as a ‘beacon of potential’ for demonstrating “how to deliver quality performance with relatively low levels of expenditure.”

Johan Hjertqvist, president of the Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), the organisation which carried out the study, said, “In the past four years, the Netherlands have been in the top three among European healthcare systems in all our general healthcare indexes.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the Dutch have the best healthcare system in Europe. When the Obama healthcare policy team looks at Europe for inspiration it seems to be the right system to study.”

He said that “once again” the central and eastern European countries make up the bulk of the low-end performers when it comes to healthcare. With the “notable exception” of Hungary, however there are countries, such as Portugal, Malta or Cyprus, who “struggle to deliver adequate levels of care and play in the losers league”.

The UK is placed 13th in the league table, down four places on last year, while France is 10th, down seven, and Germany sixth, down one.

The main issue to emerge from this year’s study, said Hjertqvist, is outcomes in healthcare, adding, “Education of both patients and general public would provide a marked improvement in care and outcomes. All countries are still in need of reform.”

“Diseases must be diagnosed early and there should be active follow-up to prevent further complications. Greater transparency is also needed: How can a healthcare system be guided and directed without records of what it actually delivers?”

The report said that in 2007, close to 55 per cent of the countries scored well on access to a family doctor on the same day while in 2008 this had dropped to 45 per cent. The same tendency is noticeable regarding cancer treatment within three weeks.

In the majority of European healthcare systems – some even in western Europe – under- the-table-payment to the doctor is a “reality,” it says.

The so-called health consumer index is the annual ranking of national European
healthcare systems in 31 countries.

Using public statistics and independent research, HCP looked at 34 indicators of quality in six categories – patient rights and information, e-Health, waiting time for treatment, outcomes, range and reach of services provided and pharmaceuticals.

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