| dc.description.abstract | Poverty and social exclusion continue to be serious challenges across the European Union and for health systems in Member States. People living in poverty or who are at risk of social exclusion are more likely to face health problems and there is evidence that they sometimes do not receive the care that best responds to their needs. There is therefore room for improvement of both health promotion and prevention strategies with these groups in mind, and for more active policies to tackle barriers of access to high-quality care.
This has been recognised at an EU level. Achieving access for all to adequate healthcare and long-term care and tackling inequities in access has now been proposed as a priority objective for the new streamlined EU Open Method of Coordination for social protection and social inclusion to support EU policy coordination.
This document presents the outcome of a study on Quality in and Equality of Access to Healthcare Services: HealthQUEST that was commissioned by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity under the 2002–2006 Community Action Plan on Social Inclusion. The project aims to build knowledge at a European level about barriers to accessing healthcare for people at risk of social exclusion and about effective policy initiatives in Member States to reduce these barriers, in order to contribute to all three strands of the Community Action Programme within the framework of the Open Method of Coordination.
This project was undertaken by a consortium led by the European Health Management Association (EHMA) in Brussels that brought together experts from eight Member States, EuroHealthNet and the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna.
The project management team was comprised of Jeni Bremner (EHMA), Manfred Huber (European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research) and Nicoline Tamsma (RIVM).
Quality | en_US |
