From Sick Care to Health Care: 10th Health & Care Day focused on preventionFrom Sick Care to Health Care:

Is there too much hubbub in healthcare? At the latest edition of the Health & Care Day of Zorgnetwerk Nederland in Leusden, there was little sign of that. Speakers like Bas van der Veldt of host AFAS Software showed an enthusiasm rarely found in the sector. Structural problems were certainly not avoided; the message is clear: care prevention is necessary to relieve the burden on the healthcare sector.

The program of speakers was geared toward Health Care, and that's different from Sick Care right? About which more later. Bas van der Veldt is CEO of a company that has been named the best or most inspiring employer several times, a designation that hospitals and other healthcare institutions will not easily fall for. How does AFAS do it? Van der Veldt first asked the audience about the biggest problems in healthcare. Words like 'aging population' and 'work pressure' fell. Too many women," joked Van der Veldt, who immediately continued that too many men work in the ICT sector. The key at AFAS is 'trust' and 'embarrassment'. For example, it is customary to approve declarations under 100 euros without verification, and the software company has an app for sick and leave reporting in which the man is congratulated when he reports a pregnancy, tongue in cheek, of course.

In the healthcare sector, employees often feel undervalued and it's not so easy to get laid, Correspondent journalist Lynn Berger knows. She wrote the book "Care, a Better Look at People. In addition to a series of interviews, the work includes the history of care as a concept, starting with caring for each other in everyday life. 'Everyone needs care. Without care, children do not grow up, the sick do not get better and the elderly do not grow old. Care is what human civilization began with; what keeps society running every day. Care is what makes people people'.

But if care is so important, why do we take such poor care of it? Berger points to the frequently cited aspect that home care workers are often only allowed 6 minutes per client. "Care is a fabric and a scarce commodity. For care to continue to 'flow,' caregivers need time and space for self-determination - both professionals
as caregivers."

Michel Scholte is co-founder of the True Price & Impact Institute. He is committed to the (social) sustainability of products, such as Tony Chocolonely's chocolate. As such, Scholte helps entrepreneurs with 'fair' pricing. Corporate social responsibility is underestimated especially in the financial sector, because accountants are 'illiterate' in that area, Scholte says. A message not directly related to the healthcare sector, but served as inspiration.  

Shortly before the afternoon break, it was time for a look back at 10 years of Health & Care Day, a congress favoring out-of-the-box thinkers from outside the industry, such as in previous editions paralympic triathlete Marc Herremans, architect Thomas Rau and internist Diederik Gommers. The positive approach of the day was supported by a gospel choir.

Executive chairman Georgette Fijneman of insurer Zilveren Kruis advocates digitalization and self-direction to continue to enable accessibility to care for all. "Staff shortages require care close to home, as much as possible digitally. In that area, individual initiatives of institutions should be scaled up; we should not all reinvent the wheel."

Marc Noppen is CEO of the UZ Brussel. The only international speaker of the day orated the key words: we need to move from Sick Care to Health Care. Noppen had a number of statistics on hand that indicated that the evolution of life expectancy threatens to make health care top-heavy. "The average life expectancy in the year my grandfather was born, 1897, was 42. Now it has doubled." Only 17% of that development would be due to better health care. Healthier living is the key, and smart prevention. "In Belgium, the general hospital with 40 specialties is becoming unsustainable. I foresee some decentralization."

Two sessions to go - including Ben Tiggelaar's classic motivational talk ("dream, dare, do"). We close with a conversation by pastor Ad van Nieuwpoort with lung specialist Wanda de Kanter. She said she diagnosed about 10,000 patients with lung cancer and has been fighting the tobacco industry for several years. The message (20,000 smoking deaths a year) was of course repeated, and it became a personal conversation in the form of College Tour. De Kanter himself started smoking as a 12-year-old high school student, was inspired to become a doctor in the Third World, and now sees the e-cigarette in stores without legal barriers. "We don't live in a democracy but in a lobbying bureaucracy," she says of politics and business. "With the major impact of smoking on the healthcare industry, surely something has to change?" the interviewer riposted. De Kanter's response was remarkable, to say the least. "In healthcare, money is made from illness." Quit smoking, then, preferably with higher excise taxes, De Kanter said. Prevention, and then from Sick Care to Health Care.