When it comes to surgery EU official says shop around

The European Commission's (EU) top health official has said that patients in the EU should have the right to be reimbursed by their national authorities for treatment taken anywhere in any of the 25 member countries.

Healthcare is on the whole a domestic issue in the EU, but the European Court of Justice, has ruled that the EU's treaty allows for the free movement of people seeking health services across the member states.

The EU court plans to propose new rules in order to clarify the rights patients have outside their home state.

EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou says the healthcare that patients need is sometimes best provided in another EU country.

Currently about 1 percent of patients obtain treatment outside their home state but the number growing as patients become frustrated with long waiting lists and satisfactory treatment is becoming more available overseas.

Mr Kyprianou suggests that patients would only be able to travel for treatment that would be available in their home country at the same price and would only be reimbursed for treatment that is also available at home; any extra costs would be down to them.

Mr Kyprianou says the issue of who should be liable if something goes wrong and who should pay for follow-up treatment needed to be discussed.

He says the internal market applies to health services and people can shop around.

In May the EU's top court ruled that British patients who travel abroad for treatment must be reimbursed if they faced an "undue delay" for treatment in Britain.

Healthcare is a political hot potato at present and currently involves moves to increase competition as services are typically funded by governments and large employers.

The health sector was removed earlier this year from the scope of new EU rules to open up services to cross-border competition, to the dismay of liberal states and the relief of others.

Kyprianou says member states and the EU parliament have apparently indicated some support for such citizen-friendly measures.

The EU's executive Commission has agreed to the tabling of proposals on the issue in 2007 for member states and the European Parliament to adopt.

It will look at which health authority is responsible for supervising treatment received abroad, continuity of care for patients after returning home and patients' rights such as compensation if treatments go wrong.

The Commission will discuss the mobility of services, such as a surgeon wanting to work in another state for a short period, or a health company wanting to offer services in different states and it suggests coordination between healthcare services in different states could bring economies of scale.

The move could have significant implications for health services such as the NHS, which has a limited capacity and long waiting lists.

A spokesman for the Department of Health says last year the number of UK citizens who travelled abroad specifically for treatment was just 230 - compared to 1,100 in 2000.