EU law: the key to the door
EU law is going to be the motor driving change within healthcare services over the next decade.
It is EU law forcing open tenders and throwing wide the German ambulance market. It is EU law which looks set to liberate the UK outpatient sector. Expect similar moves elsewhere.
Politicians everywhere hate healthcare reform. Across Europe it is the surest way to kill your career. How wonderful then to be able to tell the electorate: “Sorry, we have to open up these sectors to tender under EU law. Blame Brussels, not us!”
EU law effectively means that tendered contracts can’t preclude or cut out the private sector.
But we are seeing other, more profound, challenges from private operators in Belgium and France, who are demanding the European Court looks at opaque arrangements where public-sector bodies are slipped extra funds that are not available to private players. That fuse will have a slow burn, but we will start to see changes in five years or so.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
