The European Commission has proposed a new public health strategy for the European Community. At the heart of the strategy is an incentive programme, with a proposed budget of E300m (£175m) over six years and with three main strands of action.
The first strand aims to put in place a comprehensive data system on the major determinants of health in the community, together with mechanisms to evaluate the data. The second seeks to ensure that the community is in a position to counter threats to health which cannot be tackled by member states in isolation. The third is intended to put in place strategies to identify the most effective policies for combating disease and promoting health.
"The potential for improved health through community action is hugely under-exploited," Mr David Byrne (Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection) said on May 16.
"At present, member states operate their health care systems in virtual isolation from one another. Efforts at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of individual systems through improved co-operation are still only in their infancy. This represents a missed opportunity given that constructive peer review could lead to improvements and efficiencies in health systems, allowing them better to confront new challenges like demographic ageing."
Mr Byrne stated that the first step in addressing this weakness should be a comprehensive data system that would allow critical review of individual health care systems in a community context. Citizens in each member state should have access to a wide range of information on what impacted on their health and how public health systems catered to their needs. They should be able to find out how long patients waited for particular treatments, how much those treatments cost and how effective they were. This could best be achieved through community mechanisms which allowed national systems to be critically compared, the commissioner said. People should know how their countries' systems performed and what their strengths and weaknesses were.
The new health strategy will be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers under their new co-decision powers in public health.
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