Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare

International Health Care Systems: Dr. Josep Figueras

9:00 am

Dr. Josep Figueras:

That is a very good point. Not always, no. The variation is huge. We need to look at them case by case, and I will not remember them off by heart, but the answer is "no" in terms of areas such as physiotherapy, speech therapy and so on. There is a huge variation as to how those community rehabilitation types of health services are provided. With regard to physiotherapy, for instance, some countries provide a number of sessions, depending on the disease, paid by the system. Following that there would be a user charge or the patient would need another inspectorate or GP to refer them. In countries such as The Netherlands, which is the first example that comes to mind, they had to limit that because there was an abuse of the physiotherapy service and so on, to the point where it was no longer cost effective. They had to reduce that. The answer is "no". It is true that for some of these areas there is not universal access. That is a very good point.

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