Bring me my smelling salts !

Bulgaria has the worst European quality of healthcare services, according to the 2009 Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI).

The research, sponsored by the European Commission, puts Bulgaria in last place having in mind the negative results of the country in different health related fields.

Bulgaria has negative evaluations in all criteria, connected with medicines accessibility – percentage of price return for medicines given with a prescription, innovative onco medicines usage, access to new products. In this criteria Bulgaria is joined at the bottom by Albania and Lithuania.

Some of the main criticism is based on the lack of patient protection legislature. In Bulgaria, there is no way of getting compensation without getting the case to the court.

The Netherlands win the 2009 (EHCI), for the second year in a row.

There are general improvement trends among most of the measured healthcare systems, with examples of reform making impact not only in Netherlands but in Ireland or the Czech Republic as well.

There is continuous decline in the Spanish, Portuguese and Greek healthcare systems which do not keep up with the improvement rate one can find in countries like the Netherlands, Denmark or Ireland.

Large parts of Eastern and Central Europe seem to be affected by the financial crisis, the report says.

The EHCI 2009 groups 38 indicators of quality into six categories: Patient rights and information, e-Health, Waiting time for treatment, Outcomes, Range and reach of services provided and Pharmaceuticals.

The EHCI has become a measurement standard for European healthcare. It ranks 33 national European health care systems across 38 indicators.

Uncle's View: In defence of the Bulgarian healthcare system; friends who have used it were relatively impressed (apart from one friend who was asked for a 12 year old bottle of malt whisky for the gynacologist to assist his wife in childbirth).

The hospitals are generally clean and the staff quite good, though the surgical scars I have seen on some people would not happen in the UK.

However it all boils down to money at the end of the day and Bulgaria just doesnt have it.