A report that welcomes the proposal from the European Commission for a Directive on patients' rights to cross-border healthcare but calls for improvements and warns that, due to the unpredictable impact of the provisions in the Directive, it must be carefully monitored upon implementation.

A report that welcomes the proposal from the European Commission for a Directive on patients' rights to cross-border healthcare but calls for improvements and warns that, due to the unpredictable impact of the provisions in the Directive, it must be carefully monitored upon implementation.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

People have always travelled within Europe for work and leisure, although never before with the current intensity. Now, however, they are travelling for many other reasons, including the quest for key services such as health care. Whatever the reason for travelling, one question they ask is "If I fall ill, will the health care I receive be of a high standard?" This book examines, for the first time, the systems that have been put in place in all of the European Union's 27 Member States. The picture it paints is mixed. Some have well developed systems, setting standards based on the best available evidence, monitoring the care provided, and taking action where it falls short. Others need to overcome significant obstacles.

The increasing number of refugees, asylum seekers, and irregular migrants poses a challenge for mental health services in Europe. This review found that these groups are exposed to risk factors for mental disorders before, during, and after migration. The prevalence of psychotic, mood, and substance-use disorders in these groups varies but overall resembles that in the host populations. Refugees and asylum seekers, however, have higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Poor socioeconomic conditions are associated with increased rates of depression five years after resettlement. Refugees, asylum seekers, and irregular migrants encounter barriers to accessing mental health care. Good practice for mental health care includes promoting social integration, developing outreach services, coordinating health care, providing information on entitlements and available services, and training professionals to work with these groups. These actions require resources and organizational flexibility.

The lack of well-documented, factual information on fraud, waste and corruption in the healthcare sector is an important ally for those who would seek to abuse healthcare systems for their own profit. Our lack of knowledge of the incidence, nature and extent of fraud, waste and corruption in healthcare is a threat to the establishment of effective counter-fraud strategies. It prevents those who finance healthcare provision from understanding in clear and quantifiable terms the need to invest resources into counter-fraud activities. As a consequence, fraud remains a matter of moral hazard and healthcare systems continue to suffer considerable financial damage, as well as all the associated consequences for the quality of care that patients receive. It was for these reasons that the 'European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network' (EHFCN) and the 'Dutch Healthcare Authority' (NZa, member of EHFCN) decided to collaborate to publish this book... --

Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield. This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. The reviewed evidence included study designs such as uncontrolled pilot studies, case studies, small-scale cross-sectional surveys, nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, community-wide ethnographies and randomized controlled trials from diverse disciplines. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; promoting arts engagement at the individual, local and national levels; and supporting cross-sectoral collaboration.