ZAGREB, February 27, 2019 – According to the Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), which measures the healthcare quality and accessibility, Croatia ranked 24th of 35 European countries in 2018, which is an improvement of two places compared to the 2017 ranking but still leaves Croatia behind Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro.
The EHCI analyses health systems in 35 countries using 45 indicators related to patients’ rights, including the right to information, accessibility of treatment, health care and medicines, and treatment outcomes.
Croatia got 644 of the maximum 1,000 points in 2018, which is 24 points more than in 2017.
Even though Croatia’s health system applies very advanced and expensive procedures such as kidney transplantation, there remains the problem of long waiting times for specialist examinations, as well as the problem of accessibility of CT scans and long waiting times for surgery.
Croatia continues to have a high mortality rate related to cancer and cardiovascular diseases and stroke, as well as a high infant mortality rate, and it does not achieve sufficiently good results in the prevention of high blood pressure, smoking and drinking, according to the EHCI.
The best-ranked health systems in Europe are Switzerland (892 points), the Netherlands, Noway and Denmark.
Of Croatia’s neighbouring countries, Serbia ranks 18th, Slovenia 21st and Montenegro 23rd. The poorest-ranked are Albania, Romania and Hungary.
Croatia’s best result was in 2016, when it ranked 19th in terms of healthcare quality and accessibility.
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