2006-06-29

Dear Sir

Judging by the coverage received for the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006, it would appear that the Irish government is not too pleased with the outcome. Yet neither should Irish care consumers be - Irish healthcare still does not work very well.

To put some of the comments in the press into some kind of perspective, the Government needs to understand that our Index is designed to reflect the realities of patients and care consumers of today, not political perspectives and future plans. The aim is to present an alternative to what most governments work with, such as average lifespans, average obesity or average cancer mortality in the population. Such figures are of value to public authorities but are of little use to people waiting for care or being worried about MRSA infections.

Irish public sector investments in healthcare appear impressive but very little research says that the care consumer in the short term is gaining from increased bigger public spending. The government points to the reduction in waiting times for medical treatments. This improvement is indeed impressive. However Irish consumers still have to wait far longer than people in Germany, Belgium or Index-winning France. Five months waiting is clearly better than five years, but as the Index criteria is three months for less acute treatments Ireland still has a distance to go to before its receives a good score in the Index.

The Irish government also does not agree with the suggestion that bypassing the GP gatekeeper function would reduce waiting times for a specialist treatment. Yet the analysis of the Index results clearly shows that those systems with a direct access to specialist care are far more accessible to the consumers, with no waiting lists. Nor is there reliable research proving that such improvement would cost more!

Fundamental change is going on in Ireland, but this is the case in most European countries. It remains to be seen how this change will impact the Irish position in future Indexes.

The Health Consumer Powerhouse prefers co-operation before confrontation. That is why we always, beside meetings with our expert panels and contacts with local experts, invite the Ministry of Health in each country to discuss the Index project early in the process, and to ask for official input and comments. Sadly, repeated e-mails and letters to the Ministry in Dublin received no response.

On June 20^th 2006 – ahead of the Index launch – I sent a renewed proposal to the Minister of Health offering a presentation of the Index outcome in Dublin, to open a discussion about the conclusions and our recommendations for improvements.

We would still welcome dialogue to improve the Index. Perhaps this time we might have an answer?

Best regards,

Johan Hjertqvist                                         Arne Björnberg

President                                                   Director Euro Health Consumer Index

Health Consumer Powerhouse

- the leading healthcare analyst and care consumer information provider