mr president regarding the report on patients rights in cross-border health care i would like to emphasise the issue of the right of patients to be informed about the available medication and treatment options
european patients should have access to quality health information regarding the latest medication available the treatment options home and abroad the legal and financial implications of being treated abroad the reimbursement of the treatment costs and many other areas
for the moment we do not have this type of quality information
we may have some national initiatives but nothing that could be effective at european level
the problems we face are european
i therefore support the idea of setting up a european health literacy network
such a network should consist of patients organisations from all the member states and should work closely with the health sector and the policy makers
in the hope of making the commission aware of the need to better inform the one hundred and fifty million european patients i have initiated a written declaration on health literacy
we have all been patients at some point and we never know when it will happen again
