Malta drops in healthcare ranking

Malta lost four positions in the European Health Consumer Index, presented in Brussels today.

The annual survey of European healthcare ranked Malta 26th out of 33 countries with 565 points from a potential 1,000. The Netherlands topped the ranking for the second year with a record 875 points, followed by Denmark (819), newcomer Iceland (811) and Austria (795).

The Index ranked Malta behind Croatia, FYROM and Poland.

"Malta still has some distance to cover to attain world class treatment outcomes" said Dr. Arne Björnberg, the Euro Health Consumer Index Director.

The EHCI has become a measurement standard for European healthcare. It ranks 33 national European health care systems across 38 indicators, covering six areas that are key to the health consumer: Patients' rights and information, e-Health, Waiting times for treatment, Treatment outcomes, Range and reach of services provided and Access to medication. The Index is compiled from a combination of public statistics, patient polls and independent research conducted by the founders, Brussels-based think tank Health Consumer Powerhouse.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT REACTION

The Health Department said this index was compiled by an independent private healthcare organisation and not an official European institution

“These indicators cannot be considered comprehensive by any standard, and therefore do not represent a complete picture of a country’s health system.”

The department said that while Malta’s ranking had dropped three places from last year the score for Malta had improved by 30 points and the number of countries in the index had increased from 31 to 33. Malta had shown improvement in a number of indicators. For example, 90% of cancer patients received therapy in less than 21 days from diagnosis, and this ranked Malta at the top along with 11 countries from the 33 ranked within this index.

Malta has a fairly good standing in waiting time for treatment and range and reach of services provided, being placed 16th and 17th respectively amongst the 33 countries. There were other areas where more remained to be done, particularly in e-health.

The department said the index ignored some important indicators such as for heart infarct case fatality which was clearly above the EU average for Malta.