Żminijietna – Voice of the Left – acknowledges the fact that the approved legislation reached by a compromise in the European Parliament is to strike the right balance between guaranteeing patients’ rights to cross-border healthcare and providing safe quality health services at national level. In practice, Maltese patients waiting for an operation will be able to seek treatment anywhere in the EU and get a partial or full refund of the expenses from 2013. But on the other hand we are concerned as this will also enforce medical tourism across Europe.

We are of the opinion that any attempts in the future to liberalise more the health services in the European internal market, may lead to the dismantlement of public health services in each and every EU country.

We question the real concept behind this directive if not to dismantle the rigid existing regulations in order to push forward the principle of free movement of services in the health services sector as originally stated by the European Court of Justice.

We are concerned that through this legislation, patients coming from richer countries will be able to travel to less expensive, maybe poorer, countries where there will be a threat that care standards for locals will deteriorate to make room for profitable health tourism.

The principles of the free movement of services and the services directive which all were included in the new European Treaty will push forward medical tourism, and this, if not addressed continuously, will open the road to liberalisation and privatisation of health services across Europe.

Żminijietna – would like to remind, that in the European Parliament, strong pressure to liberalise this sector is continuously being exerted. In December 2006 the Left group succeeded in gaining an important victory when health was excluded from the Services Directive. We fear that this legislation has made this obsolete.

■ Joe Attard

Żminijietna – Voice of the Left

Valletta