Conservatives up pressure on cross-border health
Posted, April 02, 2008 @ 00:00
Postponed report must be agreed to enable free movement for Britain's hard-pressed patients
Brussels, 2nd April 2008 -- Four months after the Commission postponed its groundbreaking proposal which would have allowed British people to get quicker operations on the continent, Conservative Health Spokesman, John Bowis MEP, has upped the pressure for a final publication of the proposal by June.
Speaking to the new Health Commissioner, Androula Vassiliou, Mr Bowis, a former Health Minister, said:
"Two or three Commissioners have been blocking this proposal because they thought it had something to do with health services. It is nothing to do with health services. It is all to do with patients and their rights and their opportunities."
Androula Vassiliou replied:
"We are not talking about a change to services or the freedom of movement of services. This is about the rights of citizens of the European Union, their right to access to health care in any part of the European Union, as the Treaty stipulates. So, with persuasion and with dialogue, I am going to solve the problem."