Safe Healthcare: more efforts needed for EU citizens

"Safe healthcare is the cornerstone of a high-quality health system and a recognised fundamental right for European citizens. Patients therefore expect that every effort should be made to ensure their safety in the Union's structures", said Oreste Rossi MEP, Rapporteur of ‘Patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections’, which was voted today in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament.

This initiative Report aims to improve hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation of European citizens.

It is estimated that between 8% and 12% of patients admitted to hospitals in the European Union suffer from adverse events while receiving healthcare, including healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), errors during treatment or surgery, problems arising from the failure of medical equipment, errors in diagnosis, and failure to act on test results. Healthcare-associated infections are contracted by an estimated 5% of patients in hospitals, or 4.1 million people, each year and are directly responsible for 37,000 deaths. An estimated 30-40% of adverse events related to medical treatment, in both the hospital sector and community care are preventable. Among these adverse events there are the healthcare-associated infections (it is estimated that 20% of HAIs could be avoided).

"Preparing the medical and nursing staff to comply with the best sanitary conditions and instructing patients on proper standards of conduct are some of the key measures to significantly reduce the negative impact of hospital infections", said Oreste Rossi MEP.

"It is crucial that the Member States implement the Council's recommendations", explained the Rapporteur. "Certain actions recommended by the Council have been implemented by only a limited number of Member States so far. Particularly in the field of patient empowerment, education of health professionals and auxiliaries in the broadest sense, it is vital to continue efforts towards the introduction of European classifications on patient safety or the definition of European guidelines on patient safety. Also with regard to HAIs, certain specific actions recommended by the Council to prevent and control them have only been implemented by a limited number of countries until now and there is still room for improvement, especially with regard to information for patients and support for research activities in this area."

"I finally want to underline that important contributions to this Report have also come from several colleagues, including Renate Sommer MEP and Françoise Grossetête MEP, who submitted amendments concerning antimicrobial resistance, the rational use of off-label drugs, and a proper and safe transmission of sensitive data. I would also like to point out the crucial role of the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) as well as the request to Member States to allocate adequate resources to ensure patient safety.