The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7253 p817
14 June 2003

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Meeting summaries  14 June

Related websites
Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (www.aesgp.be)
Picker Institute Europe (www.pickereurope.org)

Patients throughout Europe require greater access to health information

Patients throughout Europe want more information about health and medicines than they currently receive. This is a key finding of research conducted among 8,000 people across eight European countries, including non-European Union member states.

Dr Angela Coulter, chief executive of Picker Institute Europe, told the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP) annual meeting that what patients want from health care can be summarised as more information, more self-care, more involvement and more respect for their preferences.

"The most striking thing is that European patients are saying similar things and have similar concerns," she said. "Almost everybody said they want more information about health and illness."

The greatest source of health information is general practitioners, with more than 60 per cent of people using them, Dr Coulter said. Less than one person in 10 uses pharmacists for health information. This places pharmacists only one step ahead of advertisements and behind medical specialists, print media, television and radio, the internet, friends and family, and other health facilities.

Although the internet is only used by 10 per cent of people, Dr Coulter said that this is growing fast, with usage doubling in just one year. Even so, people are critical of information on the web and do not know how reliable it is. They are particularly suspicious of information placed on the internet by commercial organisations.

Looking more closely at views of pharmacists, Dr Coulter said that people recognise that pharmacists are highly trained and often know more about medicines than doctors. But there were negative views overall to the suggestion that pharmacists might prescribe. A common view is that pharmacists are more shopkeepers than health professionals.

Looking at health care in general, Dr Coulter said that European patients are satisfied with provision for primary care, are concerned about waiting times (except in Germany and Switzerland), are worried about equity, costs and co-payments and are generally pessimistic about the future.

She said that there are strongly held beliefs that health care should be available to all according to need and not ability to pay. Patients in countries that operate insurance-based, rather than tax-funded, national health care systems are particularly concerned about rising co-payments and are taking out additional private insurance to meet them.

The research was conducted in Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Journal's attendance at the 39th annual meeting of the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry, held in Cannes, France, from 4 to 6 June was made possible by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain