The ageing populations of Europe--implications for health systems and patients' rights.

Europe is facing a trend of demographic and social change that is likely to have a significant impact on our health systems in the coming decades. The primary concerns are related to the double challenge of population ageing and population decline. These changes will result in a shrinking workforce to handle the steadily increasing healthcare needs of the very old, who will constitute the fastest growing segment of the population. A number of strategies to meet this challenge are suggested and implemented, not least at the EU level. Adaptation of European health systems to the new situation also makes it necessary to revisit familiar medico-legal issues, in order to clarify and consolidate a number of already established patients' rights.