A report evaluating the health care services in 29 European countries lists Bulgarian health care among the worst in the countries evaluated.

The report was produced by Health Consumer Powerhouse, a Brussels-based group specialising in health care research, and presented on October 1 2007, EUObserver said.

According to the report, there is a persistent gap in the quality of health sectors between older EU member states and new countries in central and eastern Europe, with the best and most patient-friendly hospitals in Austria, the Netherlands and France, and the worst recorded in Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland.

The report evaluated the health care services in the 27 EU member states plus Switzerland and Norway.

The study measured the performance of the health care systems in five categories, such as patients' rights and information, waiting times for common treatments, care outcomes, the generosity of the system and access to medication.

Austria is ranked as Europe's most consumer-friendly health care, due to a "combination of widespread access to treatment and excellence in outcomes."

The Netherlands, first in 2005, came in second place this year, with France in third place.

According to the researchers, there is a tiny difference between the top three countries plus Switzerland and Germany and "very subtle changes in single scores modify the internal order" among them.

Except for Estonia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic, most new EU member states, including Bulgaria, came at the bottom of the table.

"One major challenge across Europe is to actually start measuring and calculating what health care services do, how much and how well they do it," Arne Bjornberg, author of the study, told EUobserver.

"Because traditionally what has been measured was how much money we put into health care or how many doctors we have or how many hospitals, but very little on what health care does and how well it does it," he added.