Public health care is under “great pressure”. This is the conclusion of the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) in a report published Tuesday, after 24 visits to Municipal Health Services (GGD) last winter. Most GGDs feel the consequences of the ‘major’ and ‘dire’ shortages of qualified and skilled personnel and financial resources. In some regions, the pressure is so high that the quality of care suffers, for example in youth health care.
The GGDs still indicate that they do not have enough money to adequately carry out all tasks, such as vaccinations, youth health care (for example, the health clinic) and infectious disease control. In response to the visible problems during the corona pandemic, the government released an extra 75 million euros to be stronger against new infectious diseases and pandemics, but this is only a temporary — and therefore not a structural — impulse.
In a comment says umbrella organization GGD GHOR Netherlands to support the conclusions and recommendations in the report. It is the task of municipalities and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to invest extra in public health care, the GGDs write. GGD GHOR calls a possible solution for the staff shortage facilitating lateral entry and ‘removing legal obstacles’ to the use of innovations.
The IGJ’s message is in line with the cry for help issued by the Council for Public Health & Society (RVS) last month in an advisory report. The RVS called the foundations of public health care in the Netherlands “weak”, “shaky” and “too vulnerable” and therefore concluded that public health is under pressure. Staff shortages and financial neglect — “too little is invested in it” — were also the main causes of the problem, according to the RV.