Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-16-Speech-4-050"
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"en.20060316.5.4-050"2
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"Mr President, I have expressed quite a few views on the Commission’s health programme and kicked up a bit of a fuss. I do think, however, that it is really commendable, and I therefore wish to thank not only Mr Kyprianou but also Mr Trakatellis.
It has been self-evident to me that health is primarily an issue for the Member States, and I am delighted that the majority in this Chamber are of the same view. What we do at EU level needs to provide clear added value to patients. There are three aspects of this subject that I have been involved in and fought for and that I particularly want to emphasise today. First of all, there is the point of departure for this report, which is, and always must be, that the individual’s own commitment to his or her own health is what is most important. Where health care and work in the public health field are concerned, we politicians must always regard people, even if they happen to be ill, as adults with rights and duties, including the right to control their own lives and health care. We must never forget that active involvement in our own health is always the best medicine. That is precisely what is so unfortunate about the fact that the Social Democrats wish to remove the wordings designed to promote just such active involvement in our own health.
As Members of the European Parliament, we must also facilitate movement within and between countries so that everyone can seek the treatment and care they themselves most believe in. At present, those who enjoy least freedom of movement in the EU are those who need it most, that is to say the patients. For them, Europe’s borders become little Berlin Walls standing in the way of their ability to obtain treatment. For them, freedom of movement may be a matter of life or death. We must not believe that the most important aspects of the good society can be regulated and organised using the planned economy, which has so clearly proved to be the economic model most destructive of creativity and sound housekeeping. We must have more freedom of choice and of movement.
We must also make efforts to ensure that we as decision-makers, together with those who implement the decisions and, in particular, those who use health services obtain better access to information from those services. We must be able to compare results and not only, as at present, costs. These developments are needed not only so that we might learn from each other but also so that users might take advantage of the freedom of movement and of choice given to them by the European Court of Justice. These developments would be to the advantage of European patients.
Up until about the time of the Second World War, people coming into contact with health services were victims. More often than not, they were healthier before the doctor was called than after. Through the development of treatment methods and the advent of drugs, we have become patients in our health care systems. I am, however, convinced that, within the not too distant future, we shall be health care consumers, and that is a shift in perspective that we must help bring about: victims yesterday, patients today and health care consumers tomorrow. That would be a fantastic development that I believe would make us not only healthier but also freer."@en1
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