APH researcher Bianca Buurman (professor in Acute Geriatric Care at Amsterdam UMC) states that this is the moment to ask questions about what good health care is. What are the needs of patients and how can we as healthcare practitioners act on those needs? A small example is the decrease in policlinic visits and the increase in video conferencing. That seems to work well. Shouldn’t we invest more in this type of health care?
Another more fundamental question is what geriatric care should look like in the future. We have seen that particularly the elderly are vulnerable. How are we going to protect this risk group in the future? How should the balance be between quality of life and length of life? We can only provide answers to those questions if we are really going to talk to these people themselves, and with the nurses and (informal) caregivers. This is one of the most important things that should have changed in 2022. Let people think along and take part in the decision making.
Read full article in 'Het Algemeen Dagblad' (in Dutch).