EU ministers answer the call to Rhodes: Liz Hunt attends a heart disease 'jamboree'

SAM and Julie, from Huddersfield, were bemused by the appearance of machine-gun wielding soldiers in camouflage outside their hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes. What exactly was going on? Another Junta? Terrorists? Should they be contacting the Foreign Office?

They were distinctly underwhelmed to learn that the heavy army and police presence around the Rodos Palace Hotel was for the benefit of health ministers from most of the 12 member states of the European Union, who were meeting to discuss the community's biggest killer, heart disease, with 150 leading doctors and scientists.

Sam and Julie were even more unimpressed when they heard what the experts had been saying. That exercise was good for you and cigarettes were bad; that lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, less meat, and lots of olive oil would work wonders for your arteries. And that high cholesterol levels increased your chances of a heart attack. Didn't the ministers know this already?

'I knew that. Everyone I know knows that, don't they? I bet it is just another jamboree, a nice little holiday for them all,' Sam said.

Sam and Julie's verdict on the two-day all-expenses paid trip to Rhodes for more than 200 people (65 journalists also attended) was shared by many of the delegates attending the conference. They were appalled by the standard of the presentation of some of the speakers, and disgusted at the waste of Greek taxpayers' money. An executive single room at the Rhodes Palace starts at Dr20,650 (pounds 58). Many of those at the conference were with partners.

The conference was the idea of Professor Dmitri Kremastinos, president of the Council of the European Ministers for Health. Dr Martin McKee, a senior lecturer in public health medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was apoplectic. 'This is all about lobbying, special pleading by the cardiologist for the EC to direct money away from cancer and Aids.'

He criticised the 'highly selective presentation of evidence', much of which he said 'ignored basic epidemiological principles'.

Dr McKee said that speakers had virtually ignored the role of aspirin as a preventive treatment, mentioned diet in passing and ignored the widespread use of inappropriate treatments such as angioplasty, which had varying success rates. 'To top it all there was no mention of the EC tobacco subsidy.' Tobacco is the single biggest cause of premature death in the EC. David Banta of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, said that the conference was 'a travesty', and he objected to the 'huge waste of money by the Greek ministry.'

Another high-ranking French delegate who asked not to be named said that the conference was all about 'power grabbing'. Until the Maastricht Treaty the EU had little to do with public health. 'Under Article 129 of the treaty they have increased responsibility, and they are seeking to take over as much of that area as possible, perhaps at the expense of other organisations such as the World Health Organisation.' Padraig Flynn, the EU Commissioner with responsibility for health, employment and social services, conceeded that parts of the conference had been 'repetitious'. 'We are not here to take policy decisions but to hear evidence.'

John Bowis, the rotund parliamentary under-secretary of health and the senior British representative in Rhodes, was philosophical about the event. Some statistics were dubious, he said. 'The one that struck me was that which showed that countries with the most doctors have the highest death rate.'

' Professor Celia Oakley, from the Hammersmith Hospital, London, who spoke under the title 'Future Directions', summed up the feeling of many. 'There is,' she said, 'no political will.'

Some would disagree, however. The Danes, Dutch and Germans reportedly failed to attend in protest at the Greeks' attitude to Macedonia.