NHS care "mediocre"
Tuesday, 02 Oct 2007 09:51
Report brands the NHS as "mediocre overall"
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A European-wide report has placed the UK's healthcare as 17th out of 29 countries.
The Euro Health Consumer Index brands the NHS as "mediocre overall", criticising longer-than-necessary waiting times and poor access to new treatments – particularly in cancer care.
In five categories covering 27 performance indicators, the UK scored 581 points out of 1,000, compared to 806 from first-placed Austria.
This total places the UK on a par with Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.
Aspects of NHS care praised by the report include patient access to information, the patient ombudsman and quality rankings for individual hospitals.
Index director Dr Arne Bjornberg said patients in the UK "have the right to expect more".
"Despite substantial funding increases, [the] UK still is a mediocre overall performer," she added. "It may be that this represents the end of the road for the rationing approach which the UK has pursued."
Mr Johan Hjertqvist, president of the Health Consumer Powerhouse that conducts the research, said: "There will be a policy review on access to new cancer drugs. That is a welcome development – the present 'post code lottery' is unacceptable.
"Access has to be for all, and should be rapidly out in place."
The report will come as a challenge to Gordon Brown, who stated the NHS would be his domestic priority when he took over as prime minister.
Speaking at the Labour party conference last week, Mr Brown said he wanted to create an NHS "personal" to each person, with faster access to care, cleaner hospitals and more family- and worker-friendly access to GPs.
After Austria the index's top European countries for healthcare were Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden.