Reply to Recommendation 1270 (1995) on a quality pledge in health care and clinical and biological examinations
Doc. 7495
23 February 1996Communication from the Committee of Ministers
Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 February 1996 at the 558th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies
The Committee of Ministers has noted with interest Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1270 (1995) on a quality pledge in health care and clinical and biological examinations.
It appreciates the interest expressed by the Assembly in questions of health, which certainly concern governments as much as parliamentarians. The provision of high-quality health services is an increasingly widespread demand expressed by the public, and the governments of member states are actively seeking to satisfy it.
Some of the activities undertaken within the Council of Europe, under the auspices of the European Health Committee (CDSP), reflect the analysis and opinions set out in Recommendation 1270.
The CDSP is working with the World Health Organisation and the European Commission, for example, on the framing and implementation of guidelines applicable to quality assurance policies, with a view to helping health care services to establish quality-oriented standards and practices geared to patient satisfaction, the respect of ethical requirements and cost control.
The activities currently under way should lead, in the near future, to the production of a set of guidelines, while training courses on certain aspects of quality assurance are to be run in 1996.
The Committee of Ministers fully agrees with the Assembly as far as transparency and publicity are concerned. Indeed, many texts adopted within the Council of Europe covering the areas referred to by the Assembly could usefully receive suitable publicity, notably among health care professionals and in health care establishments. This would make patients better informed and encourage dialogue with health care staff.
However, the use of some of these texts to foster quality, while being quite interesting and even distinctly innovative, would, in the view of the Committee of Ministers, encounter serious problems. The lack of real European standards, practical guidelines and harmonised accreditation schemes, which could provide a uniform reference throughout Europe, might well make this approach laborious, incomplete and of doubtful impact.
Moreover, any unilateral pledge in connection with texts or recommendations, even based on voluntary access to a scheme of whatever kind, would be equivalent to a certification process, requiring a whole new bureaucracy, with certification procedures, methods for settling disputes, machinery for monitoring compliance, a posteriori evaluations etc.
In conclusion, the Committee of Ministers wishes to assure the Assembly that the concerns it expresses in Recommendation 1270 (1995) have been brought to the attention of the member state governments and will be borne in mind by the European Health Committee.