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“The organizational structure of the health system, in particular concerning the hospitals, is a topic that has been in focus in recent years (see section 6.1). Issues discussed are centralization of care in fewer bigger hospitals as well as the new structure in the acute area. These are topics that are likely to continue to be debated and developed in the years to come.

“The financing of the health system may also undergo changes as discussed above, with initiatives towards prioritization and user fees.

“Specific areas where developments are planned are the acute area and palliative care, which is scheduled to undergo a significant expansion in the coming years. Coordination across sectors and coherent patient pathways also continue to be areas receiving political and public attention. Diagnosis for patients with nonspecific symptoms is also an area receiving increasing political interest. In order to improve diagnostics, standardized clinical pathways aimed at patients with nonspecific symptoms have been proposed, as well as diagnostic centres.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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“The current political and public debate on health care particularly centres around three interrelated topics: prioritization of resources; how to solve the problem of a declining workforce within the health system; and how to organize the health system in the future. The topics are interrelated in that they stem from demographic and financial challenges, with an ageing population with more chronically ill and problems of supply and demand in health care.

“Prioritization has traditionally been somewhat taboo in the Danish debate about health care, but recently, probably because of issues such as the economic crisis, prioritization has emerged as a topic for political discussion. The focus on prioritization is evident in a number of policy initiatives that are being discussed or developed at the time of writing. For example, the creation of a national institute for priority setting is being debated, inspired by NICE, the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

“The introduction of user fees on some health services is also being debated and have already been implemented for in vitro fertilization treatment, sterilization and refertilization treatment.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

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Page last updated Nov. 19, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.