The Ministry of Health sent the draft plans to some of those involved on Friday. They now have a week and a half to respond, after which there must be a final agreement at the beginning of September, before Prinsjesdag.
The Integral Healthcare Agreement is necessary because the healthcare sector is bursting at the seams.
Better care
According to the agreement, after the millions of cutbacks, district care and general practitioner care may grow a few percent again until 2026. It is exactly the other way around for medical specialists and mental health care: they will receive an additional €200 million and €180 million respectively, but are allowed in the hardly grow any further in the following years.
Because of all the budget cuts, healthcare needs to get better. “We see that our neighboring countries really do better than we do with certain disorders,” the draft agreement states.
The draft Healthcare Agreement also breaks the agreement that almost everyone in the Netherlands must be able to reach the emergency department of a hospital within 45 minutes by ambulance. Patients also receive a ‘lifestyle program’ as standard. Healthcare providers must have discussed their lifestyle with all their regular patients by 2025 at the latest. Over the next two years, municipalities and health insurers must also make plans for a ‘promising start, fall prevention in the elderly, obesity in children and lifestyle intervention in overweight adults’.