Unmet needs for medical examinations in 2022

In 2022, at the EU level, 3.3% of the people in need of medical examinations were not able to receive them due to financial reasons, long waiting lists, or distance. 

The EU countries reporting the highest values were: Greece (16.7%), Finland (9.6%), Romania (7.9%), and Latvia (7.1%). At the other end of the range were Germany (0.5%), Czechia (0.3%), and Cyprus (0.1%) with the lowest shares.

Source dataset: hlth_silc_08b

The share of people at risk of poverty in the EU who reported such unmet needs was 6.1%, twice as high as those not at risk (2.8%).

Similar patterns were visible across the EU, with the exceptions of Spain (where 2.0% of people not at risk of poverty reported unmet needs against 1.6% of people at risk) and the Netherlands (0.8% of those not at risk and 0.6% of those at risk of poverty). In Greece, the reported share was 14.5 percentage points (pp) higher among those at risk of poverty (28.8%) compared with those not at risk (14.3%). High discrepancies also appeared in Romania, where the difference was 9.4 pp (15.5% compared with 6.1%), and in Portugal, with 8.5 pp (11.7% against 3.2%).