Patient mobility in European Union: health spas in Ischia, Italy

In a new case on patients seeking medical services abroad, the Leichtle case, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed its previous rulings on patient mobility. According to the Court, patients in the European Union have a (conditional) right to receive health care abroad, whereas the sickness fund should reimburse the costs of treatment and travel expenditures. As such, the Court has strengthened patient mobility in the European Union, based on the free movement principles. Now, it is up to the European Commission to develop a communal strategy aimed at further strengthening patients' rights in the Union

Embryonic Screening as A European Human Right

The European Court lifted the Italian ban on pre-implantation diagnostics (PGD). As such the Court accepted PGD as a generally accepted means for medically assisted procreation, which mayhaveconsequences for other member states prohibiting PGD

Obstetric Violence: The Brítez Arce Case and Its Relevance to Europe

According to a recent Court ruling, Argentina has to take necessary action to prevent maternal death, including a campaign to inform women about their rights during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum care period, broadcasted on radio and television and available at all maternity clinics in the country. The court’s message is crystal clear: countries in America should take the problem of obstetric violence seriously. But what about European countries? It is argued that the message also affects reproductive policies in European countries

Developing the Lismore CSG poll- a university/local government collaboration

Regional universities can contribute to the capacity of regional governance by providing an important source of specialist knowledge that can be used to aid problem-solving and engage communities more actively in decision-making. This paper reports a case of a partnership between a regional university and a local government authority (LGA), in a situation where the local government authority chose to run a referendum-style poll on a regionally important environmental and industrial issue; the development of the coal seam gas industry in a rural area. The partnership was adopted to produce an independently developed question for the poll. The poll question was developed by university academics who having consulted with stakeholders, provided advice to the LGA, which took responsibility for the final wording of the poll question. An evaluation of the processes involved in developing the poll question included reflection on the collaborative relationship between the university and the LGA. While the independence implicit in the university staff role was acknowledged as important, the importance of a university-LGA collaboration was also highlighted. The value of a more formally-structured process was noted, as were the importance of emphasising the university’s role as an advisory body only, and the LGA’s ownership of the final decision. Implications for policy include (1) the important role that regional Australian universities can play in enhancing governance and decision-making processes, (2) the potential for independent input to policy development processes for local and regional governance, and (3) the poll process which provides a robust method for ascertaining social acceptance of a controversial land use issue