The current status of decision-making procedures and quality assurance in Europe: an overview

The 2005 Report on Social Responsibility and Health of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (Ibc) proposes a new approach to implementing the right to healthcare and suggests a number of Courses of Action to be followed in various fields. Based on the latest available data, we intend to present an overview of the current state of European health systems in two of those fields-decision-making procedures and quality assurance in health care-and to attempt a comparison of the situation with the Report's provisions, in order to pave the way for the identification of what still has to be done to bridge international recommendations and the reality of policy and practice in Europe's health care.