Hospital.Help

Berlin The European Union (EU) plays a crucial role in the digitalization of healthcare in many of its member states. The billions in funding granted by it are being used to a large extent, but the complicated application conditions are causing great difficulties for many states and no one has a precise overview of the sums used.

These are the findings of a special report recently presented by the European Court of Auditors. Accordingly, EU financing programs for the digitalization of the healthcare system enable smaller and economically less strong member states to overcome financial restrictions on national budgets.

As part of the cohesion policy, which is intended to strengthen cohesion in the EU, a total of 2.4 billion euros were made available in the planning periods 2014 to 2020 and 2021 to 2027. An additional 13.6 billion euros were made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (ARF), which was set up to deal with the corona pandemic.

Additional funds flowed through other programs. However, the auditors should have found that neither the EU Commission nor most EU countries have a comprehensive overview of the EU funds used for the projects in question.

In some member states, EU funds are even the only source of financing for the development of digital health solutions given the low national budgets. For example, during a visit by the auditors to Malta, the authorities stated that some relevant projects would not have been carried out without EU funding.

The financing also offered additional advantages such as procedural guarantees and the application of international standards. In Malta, the EU has funded oncology equipment, digital diagnostics and data capture, electronic patient records and medical equipment for transmitting data to e-health systems.

In Spain, programs such as EU4Health, ARF or the Connecting Europe Facility have supported the expansion of telemedicine, remote monitoring of chronic diseases and electronic prescriptions.

In Poland, the creation of a national electronic health platform, the digitization of hospitals and their connection to the national platform, and remote consultation services were significantly advanced through EU funding.

Regarding eligible measures, the Court found that the programs we analyzed generally enable Member States to cover a wide range of measures, ranging from investments to reforms to studies and capacity building, the auditors wrote in their report.

Of 21 EU member states surveyed by the Court of Auditors, 18 stated that they had used one or more EU funds to digitize their health systems. When asked about the specific use of EU funds, 15 Member States stated that they had used EU funds to finance their electronic patient records (ePA), 13 had used EU funds to finance their electronic prescription system and five to finance telemedicine solutions.

However, there are also deficits in monitoring the use of these funds. The EU Commission has monitored progress in the digitalization of the healthcare system as part of the so-called 2030 policy program for the digital decade and has used the so-called eGovernment benchmark since 2022 and the eHealth indicator of the digital decade since 2023.

During the audit, the Court of Auditors found several deficiencies in this context, for example with regard to assessment methods and accuracy of the information. The auditors therefore recommend that the EU Commission improve both the accuracy of the information it provides to those affected and its reporting on the use of EU funds for the digitalization of healthcare under the various financing programs by 2026.

In addition, the complex structure of the funding and the high requirements for applications make it difficult to claim the funding.

EU funding for the digitalization of healthcare was made available through several programs managed by different departments of the European Commission, each with their own rules and administrative arrangements, said Jolle Elvinger, the audit member of the Court of Auditors. This made it difficult for some Member States to identify available funding and hindered their ability to apply.

Insufficient administrative capacity or difficulties in securing national co-financing would also have created further uncertainty. Overall, however, it must be stated that the Commission has effectively supported the digitalization of the health systems of the Member States within the framework of its mandate. © lau/aerzteblatt.de