Draft cross-border health directive approved by EP committee

The European Parliament's Social Affairs Committee has approved with 35 votes for and two against a draft of the cross-border health directive.

The Labour Party said that its MEP Glenn Bedingfield was among the MEPs voting for this directive in this committee.

The purpose of the draft directive is to ensure that there is a clear framework for cross-border healthcare within the EU in order to enable the rights of the patients to be exercised whilst ensuring a high level of health protection, by:

• providing sufficient clarity about rights to be reimbursed for healthcare provided in other nember states for those rights to be realised in practice;

• and ensuring that the necessary requirements for high-quality, safe and efficient healthcare are also ensured for cross-border care; whilst ensuring that such cross-border healthcare is compatible with the overall objectives of the member states of ensuring accessibility, quality and safety of the healthcare that their health systems provide.

The PL said that once this directive comes into affect, Maltese patients would enjoy new healthcare rights to get the best possible service. The committee debated 206 amendments, some of which were approved.

In Malta, the directive would leave a positive impact on the health service for people who could not afford to get timely care since they would have a right to this in other member states.

It would also be possible for Maltese citizens to buy medicines from other countries of their choice with doctors' prescriptions being recognised by all the member states, PL said.

Although not a regular member of the committee, Mr Bedingfield attended the sitting because of the importance of the debate for Malta.