Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-21-Speech-1-080"
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"en.20070521.15.1-080"2
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"Mr President, health services will remain the province of Member States and healthcare organisations will be the responsibility of Member State governments. But that does not stop our citizens from travelling, from falling ill while they are travelling, from moving permanently to other countries and wanting access to healthcare – perhaps something that Mr Titford might care to reflect on in a quieter moment.
I want to thank Mrs Vergnaud for this report. It is an extremely comprehensive one. It has many valuable contributions to the work that you, Commissioner, set out and it is extremely timely. It is quite clear that health services are not going to be reintroduced into the Services Directive. We will certainly support the compromise proposal that Mr Manders will table tomorrow making that clear.
That should not distract us from looking at some of the really important issues that are picked up in this proposal, because more and more people are going to be challenging the boundaries of the system. One of the landmark Court of Justice judgments was because of a British patient who travelled to another country to have a hip replacement operation on the grounds that her own health service – sadly in my own country – could not provide that treatment within anything like an acceptable time. The Court found in her favour and that is something that the Commissioner will reflect on. I do not object to the basis of that judgment because it seems to me that this is a right that people should have across the European Union.
But there are going to be very difficult issues that we are just starting to face. The innovatory treatments that one of the previous speakers mentioned, particularly in the areas of cancer, are already presenting really difficult issues to public health services. Expensive, life-prolonging tailored treatments: what happens if they are available in another country but not your own and you travel to that country and ask for that sort of treatment to prolong your life?
This is an important report. It is an issue that we are going to be increasingly confronted with. I commend it to you and I hope the Commissioner will come up with an imaginative response."@en1
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