Proposals for improvement of emergency rural health care.

Universal healthcare coverage is a right, and that includes emergency health care. The community expects such requirements to be within their reach, including all human and technological resources necessary for rapid and high-quality health assistance in an emergency. Access to and delivery of emergency care in rural areas is recognized as more difficult than that in urban areas. In this report, following the EURIPA meeting in June 2004, the authors determine the problems of dealing with emergencies in the rural healthcare context, and also make proposals for improvement.