A guarantee of adequate health care should be enshrined in European legislation, a conference was told today.
Mr Stephen McMahon, Chairman of the Irish Patients' Association, said such a guarantee could be provided for by the introduction of a European-wide Patients' Charter.
This would guarantee the rights of millions of citizens to an adequate health service, he said.
Mr McMahon was speaking at the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) Symposium on "Nurses and Midwives Contribution to Health Policy in Europe" this morning.
The proposed charter covers all aspects of an individual's interaction with the health system and would guarantee equal access without discriminating on the basis of financial resources, place of residence, kind of illness or time of access to services.
EU Commissioner Mr David Byrne noted that European health systems were "increasingly working together to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the services they provide. This benefits both individual patients and the functioning of systems as a whole".