As part of the assessment of the cross-border directive, the limited knowledge of the possibilities the EU citizens can live with turned out. To raise awareness and facilitate discussions series of regional workshops were organized. The penultimate one was a common Hungarian-Romanian event in Oradea, Romania on the 5th of February covered a wide range of topics such as patient rights, European Health Insurance Card (surprisingly half of the attendance does not EHIC), regional – cross-border collaborations between Hungarian and Romanian healthcare providers to better manage patients living close to the border, national networks, the JARDIN project and naturally European Reference Networks. The audience wittnessed an interesting map from Hungary which showed a colleration between the availability of ERN centres and the number of questions raised to the local helpline operated by the Hungarian branch of EURORDIS. It turned out that patients are more empowered in those regions where ERN centres are operated. The event also served as an excellent opportunity to network and find new contacts to these countries which play an important role in ERN-Lung’s Go East project.
