Abstract
During their transition, Central and Eastern European countries’ health and social care systems have undergone significant changes, and are currently dealing with serious problems of disintegration, coordination, and a lack of control over the market environment, especially for meeting patients’ needs. The increased health and social needs related to the ageing society and epidemiological patterns in these countries also require increased funding, reformation of rationing, sectors to be integrated (the managed care approach), and the development of an analytical information base for surveillance of new health and social care solutions.
Highlights
During their transition, Central and Eastern European countries’ health and social care systems have undergone significant changes, and are currently dealing with serious problems of disintegration, coordination, and a lack of control over the market environment, especially for meeting patients’ needs
Context The member states of the World Health Assembly have adopted a framework on integrated people-centered health services providing new direction and political commitment [1] to primary health care (PHC) as a crucial part of integrated care
Large deficits in the public financing of health systems were just one of the challenges arising from the economic downturn of the 1990s, which in a number of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries was coupled with inflation, increasing unemployment, low salaries, a large informal sector, and tax evasion
Summary
Central and Eastern European countries’ health and social care systems have undergone significant changes, and are currently dealing with serious problems of disintegration, coordination, and a lack of control over the market environment, especially for meeting patients’ needs. Patients on medical subscription services seek medical advice on average 3.6 times a year, up a fifth on the numbers from 2–3 years ago. Patients are ready to use ‘health-related care’ and are ready to make use of specialized health care, and medical services like dieticians and psychologists This is the fastest growing segment in CEE region. Some districts suffer from a lack of certain medical specialists, including pediatricians, internists, anesthesiologists, and surgeons, in [8] These weakness in outpatient care and shortages in health workforce lead to long waiting times, and go part way in explaining why certain indicators, such as unmet health care needs, are worse in Poland than in countries with similar levels of health spending. Mortality from treatable causes remains much higher than the EU average; cancer survival rates are consistently lower, showing that there is great scope for improvements in early diagnosis and effective, timely treatment [8]
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