Corruption in Europe's health services is surprisingly common; Grafting away.

"It happens most in the east but is rising in the west

European health care is in a sickly state. In Britain more than 6.5m people are on waiting lists for treatment, up by more than 50% since 2019. Patients in Spain wait an average of 123 days for an operation, the most in 18 years. The pandemic bears most of the blame. But even before covid-19, health care in Europe was in trouble. So much so that a new study finds that patients are being asked to grease their practitioners' palms to secure treatment.

The paper compiles data from surveys which asked more than 27,000 people from 28 EU countries whether they had been asked to make unofficial payments or offer valuable gifts to nurses, doctors or hospitals to secure treatment in the past year.

Eastern Europe had the highest prevalence of bribes: 5.5% of the population was asked to make an informal payment in 2019. But the situation there is improving. Requests for such payments have fallen by around 8% since 2013. The more worrying trend is farther west. Western Europe is seeing the largest increase in bribery, with every country except Germany reporting an increase between 2013 and 2019. In Austria, 11% faced pressure to pay a bung.” [1]

1. "Corruption in Europe's health services is surprisingly common; Grafting away." The Economist, 7 Sept. 2022, p. NA.