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Health First Europe welcomes EU proposal to improve patient safety but stresses need for more reliable, comparable data.

15 December 2008

Health First Europe welcomes EU proposal to improve patient safety but stresses need for more reliable, comparable data.

Brussels, 15 December 2008: Health First Europe (HFE) today welcomed the adoption by the European Commission of the Communication and proposed Council Recommendation on patient safety and quality of health services, including the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. This initiative will contribute significantly to efforts to improve the quality of health in Europe and to help to safeguard the safety of patients.

Commenting on the initiative, Mary Banotti, former MEP and HFE’s Honorary President, stated that “patients and healthcare workers alike have the right to adequate protection and safety when being treated in European hospitals. Unsafe environments put patients at risk, expose healthcare workers to potentially dangerous situations and can effectively disable critical health infrastructure”.

Healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) are a particular concern for patients today. Data published by the European Centre for Disease Control has highlighted alarming levels of MRSA and enormous differences in the infection levels reported across the European Union. Improving patient safety can be achieved with early detection, early containment, and effective treatment of infection – the ‘Search and Destroy’ approach. HCAIs have a big impact on healthcare systems’ finances. Indeed, the direct and indirect costs of HCAIs have been estimated at € 11 billion per year in the EU according to the UK National Audit Office. For the UK, HCAIs costs are estimated at £1 billion per year.

Although it is estimated2 that between 8% and 12% of patients admitted to hospitals in the EU each year suffer from adverse effects whilst receiving healthcare, there is still insufficient reliable EU data on patient safety to show an accurate picture. Comparable information should be made available as a tool for identifying best practices and so that patients can make informed decisions.

As HFE’s patron, former EU Health Commissioner, David Byrne, points out, “there is plenty of information available on the safety of Europe’s beaches, but far less on the safety of Europe’s hospitals”.

• Costs will be different for other countries and will change over time. However, the relative magnitudes will be similar. 1 billion £ for UK population of 59.518.000 - 7, 64 billion £ for EU population of 454.905.000 - exchange rate on 16 January 2006 : 1£ = 1, 466€ - cost for Europe: 11,2 billion €
• This estimate is drawn from: a report by the UK Chief Medical Officer on an organization with a memory, in 2000; a Spanish National Study on Hospitalisation-Related Adverse Events (ENEAS) in 2006; a French national survey of in-patient adverse events (Michel, 2007) and interviews conducted for the Commission impact assessment in preparation for the Patient Safety Communication

The first step in ensuring patient safety is the enhancement of the quality and transparency of standards and guidelines. In this sense, the conclusions of a meeting on HCAIs organized by HFE at the European Parliament with national experts, EU civil servants, MEPs, academics and other interested parties, stressed the benefits that a Code of Practice on the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections would bring to the European Union. Therefore, HFE encourages the Commission to drive forward efforts to develop common terminology and indicators and welcomes the proposal to increase the engagement of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in the surveillance of healthcare associated infections and in the formulation of best practices for prevention and control.

Additional recommendations such as the continuous professional development of health care workers and the increased sharing of best practices between Member States will also play a vital role in this effort to improve patient safety trends in Europe.

About Health First Europe

Health First Europe (HFE) is a non-profit, non-commercial alliance of patients, healthcare workers, academics and healthcare experts and the medical technology industry. We aim to ensure that equitable access to modern, innovative and reliable medical technology and healthcare is regarded as a vital investment in the future of Europe. We call for truly patient-centred healthcare and believe that everyEuropean citizen should benefit from the best medical treatments available. For more information about HFE, please visit our website www.healthfirsteurope.org

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Rebecca Snazell
Edelman
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