News item | 23-02-2023 | 3:30 pm
Minister Conny Helder for Long-Term Care and Sport is allocating an extra €1.8 million for the subsidy for tackling local regulatory pressure in the healthcare sector. The money in this subsidy helps organizations to start projects to reduce the regulatory pressure within their own organization. Less regulatory pressure gives healthcare providers more time to provide good care and attention to patients. The extra money is made available because of the great interest in the subsidy. With 164 applications, the budget for the first application round was well exceeded.
Minister Helder: “Together we have to break down the paper tower in healthcare. Many rules are set locally. With this subsidy, the healthcare sector can and must work on this itself. It is great that the large number of subsidy applications shows that the healthcare sector really wants this. That’s why I’m making extra money available. Care professionals who work every day for the people who need care must be given the space to practice their profession. If too much of your work revolves around administration, this is at the expense of good care. And it certainly does not contribute to your job satisfaction. With the extra money for this subsidy, even more healthcare providers can get to work themselves to tackle the local regulatory burden.”
Reducing local regulatory pressure
Out research shows that up to 70% of the perceived regulatory burden arises locally. The subsidy is intended for healthcare providers who want to reduce this local regulatory burden. With the money, healthcare providers can use people and time to simplify or scrap rules in the organization. Initially, a total of € 9.5 million was made available for the subsidy. Minister Helder now increases this amount to € 11.3 million. Reducing local regulatory pressure within healthcare institutions is one of the objectives of the programme [Ont]Regulate the care and align directly with the objectives of the Integral Care Agreement (IZA). From the IZA, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is working with health insurers and trade associations, among others, to reduce the administrative burden. Reducing administrative burdens is also in line with recent developments recommendations of the Social and Economic Council to alleviate the tightness in the labor market.
From 1 March, healthcare providers can again submit projects for the subsidy in a second subsidy round. € 3.8 million was initially made available for this round, but this change has increased it to € 5.6 million. With the increase in the subsidy ceiling, it is expected that 20 additional subsidies can be provided. A third and final application round will follow in November 2023.
[Ont]Regulate the Care
In addition to the subsidy for local disruption projects, the programme [Ont]Regel de Zorg also worked on the uniformity and standardization of requests for resources, accountability for care employees and other requirements that are set for care. The program also has an accessible desk where everyone can submit signals, bottlenecks and questions in the field of regulatory pressure in healthcare. Care providers and others can express their opinions there about bottlenecks, but also share good examples of reducing administrative burdens.