ru.euronews.com
EU Excess Mortality Falls Despite Persistent Healthcare System Challenges
Excess mortality in the EU decreased to 5% in November 2024, down from 22,000 deaths compared to November 2023, despite ongoing healthcare system challenges including staff shortages and medicine supply issues; the EU's Essential Medicines Act is delayed.
- How have the Covid-19 pandemic and persistent healthcare worker shortages impacted the EU's medicine supply chain?
- The decrease in excess mortality is set against a backdrop of significant healthcare worker strikes across Europe due to staff shortages and low pay. Data reveals that in 2022 and 2023, 20 EU countries reported physician shortages and 15 reported nurse shortages, highlighting systemic issues. The Covid-19 pandemic further exposed weaknesses, with 31 essential medicines currently in short supply.
- What is the current state of the EU healthcare system, considering recent excess mortality data and reported shortages?
- Excess mortality in the EU fell to 5% in November 2024, a decrease of 22,000 deaths compared to November 2023, despite ongoing healthcare system challenges. Seven EU countries reported negative excess mortality rates, while 20 countries experienced excess deaths, with the highest rates observed in Finland (18.4%), Cyprus (18.0%), and the Netherlands (13.9%).
- What are the potential long-term consequences of delayed action on the Essential Medicines Act for the EU's healthcare resilience?
- The delayed implementation of the EU's Essential Medicines Act, despite its prioritization, underscores the challenges in addressing systemic healthcare weaknesses. While the Act aims to improve medicine supply, the lack of concrete action highlights the complexity of reforming healthcare systems and ensuring long-term resilience against future crises.
Cognitive Concepts
Framing Bias
The narrative frames the EU healthcare system predominantly negatively. The headline (not provided, but implied by the text) would likely emphasize the crisis rather than the progress. The opening sentence, mentioning reduced excess mortality, is followed by a focus on ongoing problems. The sequencing minimizes the positive news and highlights the challenges.
Language Bias
The language used is relatively neutral, although the repeated emphasis on negative aspects ('problems', 'shortages', 'crisis') leans toward a negative framing. The use of phrases like 'most affected regions' could be replaced with more neutral language like 'regions with highest excess mortality rates'.
Bias by Omission
The provided text focuses heavily on the statistics of excess mortality and the shortages within the EU healthcare system, but it lacks context on the overall quality of care provided within the EU. It mentions strikes due to low pay and staff shortages, but doesn't offer information on patient outcomes, satisfaction rates, or access to care outside of medication shortages. The analysis omits the positive aspects or improvements in the EU healthcare systems, focusing primarily on the negative aspects. While acknowledging limitations of space, a more balanced perspective would strengthen the analysis.
False Dichotomy
The text presents a somewhat simplistic view of the EU healthcare system, focusing mainly on the negative aspects such as staff shortages and medication scarcity. It does not fully explore the complexities and nuances of the system, which varies greatly between member states. There is no consideration given to the potential for innovation, improvements, or positive changes.
Sustainable Development Goals
The article highlights persistent challenges within the EU healthcare system, including staff shortages, low pay leading to strikes, and shortages of essential medicines. These issues directly hinder access to quality healthcare and negatively impact the well-being of EU citizens. The excess mortality data, while showing improvement, still indicates ongoing health problems across the region. The delays in implementing the essential medicines law further exacerbate the situation.