European vascular surgery 1988. Increasing needs in an era of constrained economical resources

Abstract

Dear members and guests: Let me first express my gratitude for the great honour of being elected as the first President of this distinguished society. It is with great pride that I see the number of members steadily increasing, and I think we all appreciate the importance of our society for the coordination of the various activities within vascular surgery in Europe today. In many European countries the number of vascular procedures has increased during recent years and particularly in the last decade there have been significant increases in most categories of vascular operations. In spite of this we are unable to fulfill the increasing needs of our patients. L 2 The number of elderly people in the population is increasing and it seems that there will be an increasing number of patients in the future who will need our services in order to prolong and improve the quality of life. However, as the need for vascular surgery has increased, hospital budgets have certainly not increased to the same extent. On the contrary, since the mid seventies, severe cutbacks have been common in most countries. ~'4's Medical care expenditure expressed as a percentage of gross national product has actually decreased during the last ten years, particularly in the allocation to