Consumer Rights Directive

(30) Healthcare requires special regulations because of its technical complexity, its importance as a service of general interest as well as its extensive public funding. Healthcare is defined in Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare as ‘health services provided by health professionals to patients to assess, maintain or restore their state of health, including the prescription, dispensation and provision of medicinal products and medical devices’. Health professional is defined in that Directive as a doctor of medicine, a nurse responsible for general care, a dental practitioner, a midwife or a pharmacist within the meaning of Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications or another professional exercising activities in the healthcare sector which are restricted to a regulated profession as defined in point (a) of Article 3(1) of Directive 2005/36/EC, or a person considered to be a health professional according to the legislation of the Member State of treatment. The provisions of this Directive are not appropriate to healthcare which should be therefore excluded from its scope.