Ireland ranked first in Europe for palliative care of breast cancer patients

Ireland has the best palliative care for breast cancer patients in Europe though services for women with the disease lack patient focus, an EU-wide comparison suggests.

Overall, Ireland’s health service is ranked eighth out of 28 European countries in the FutureProofing Healthcare: Sustainability Index published today. Irish services scored highly for resilience and quality but poorly for ‘health status’.

A separate index of breast cancer services ranked Ireland sixth in Europe for the prevention and diagnosis of the disease, but a low score for patient focus saw it placed 27 out of the 28 countries surveyed.

Drawn up by a panel of healthcare experts with funding from pharma giant Roche, the Sustainability Index claims to provide a unique snapshot of the current status of healthcare systems across Europe. The authors says they want to start an EU-wide conversation on the need to act now to futureproof healthcare systems, so patients get the care they need in the coming decades.

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Ireland is especially strong in training the next generation of healthcare professionals, while Irish people are the most likely to think they are in good health, compared to other EU countries,, according to the index.

Pierre-Alain Delley, general manager of Roche Products (Ireland), said digitisation was poised to be one of the main drivers of a healthcare revolution. “Ireland needs to be at the forefront of this in order to continue to deliver high quality healthcare, and make our healthcare system more sustainable for patients in the future.”

The Index found that northern European countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Germany are leading the way with the most sustainable healthcare systems. There are major regional disparities across the EU with Eastern European countries coming in at the lower end of the Index.