Patients in the European Union (EU) will have the right to seek free medical care in any of the EU's 15 member countries under a new agreement. The plan, expected to take effect in 2004, will benefit patients who face long waits for care in their own countries. The move comes after the European Court of Justice ruled that patients in the EU could go abroad for treatment if their own country is unable to provide care “within a time limit which is medically justifiable.” Patients will have to obtain authorization from their own national health service, and details of the plan — such as whether patients will pay for treatment and then be reimbursed — are still being discussed.
One provision calls for an electronic insurance card that guarantees hospitals and doctors that treatment costs will be covered. EU countries already provide travellers with a form to complete in order to receive subsidized care while abroad. The plan is part of an effort to let citizens move about the EU with less paperwork and red tape.
About 1100 Britons go abroad each year for medical treatment paid for by the National Health Service, which critics say has been slow to reduce waiting times and to help patients find alternative treatment abroad. Yvonne Watts is suing her local NHS primary care trust for delaying her right to a hip replacement operation in France. Watts, 72, has been told she may have to wait up to a year for the surgery.
Her family contacted a hospital in Lille, where at least 200 British patients received treatment last year, and were told the operation could be performed immediately. However, NHS officials have refused to authorize it, arguing that the NHS still reserves the right to define an “undue delay” under the EU plan.
“The UK definition, which we have checked with the Department of Health, is a delay beyond the maximum waiting time laid down in the NHS plan,” a spokeswoman said. “For this lady, at this time, that would be 12 months.” — Mary Helen Spooner, West Sussex, UK