Global healthcare costs to triple

Global healthcare spending is set to triple in the next 15 years, according to a report released yesterday by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The report predicts that spending will reach 16 per cent of gross domestic product by 2020 in OECD countries, including Ireland, and that many healthcare systems will become unsustainable unless there are fundamental changes in the way they are funded and operated.

Healthcast 2020: Creating a Sustainable Future looked at trends and practices in global healthcare. It said the French healthcare system, ranked the best in the world by the UN's health agency in 2000, is losing €23,000 a minute and is projected to collapse by 2020; in the US, the Medicare fund is projected to go bankrupt by 2019.

Approximately 580 hospital executives from 27 countries around the world were surveyed for the report and interviews were carried out with over 120 healthcare "thought leaders".

Outsourcing of clinical procedures to the private sector is becoming an increasing trend, the report found and the attitude that all healthcare should be local is "dangerously provincial".

It said there is a need for Irish consumers to be better informed about the cost of procedures.

The report identified some common features of sustainability in global healthcare systems, including the need for benchmarks among stakeholders to balance public versus private interests, adaptable models of care delivery centred on the needs of patients and better use of technology.

Simon Leary, one of the report's authors, said governments and healthcare organisations must find new ways to share ideas and work together.