GGD: Netherlands must spent additional €600 million per year to improve basic healthcare

The GGD wants the new Cabinet to commit to spending an additional 600 million euros annually to help provide better quality healthcare. The coronavirus crisis has proven that “basic care is too impoverished,” and that “the Netherlands must be better prepared for health challenges and crises,” the GGD wrote in a statement.

The Netherlands needs to be better prepared for infectious disease control and youth health care, among many other basic health protection measures "that every Dutch person can count on," the organization said. This will cost 425 million euros.

They also called for an additional 50 million euros in structura funding to improve prevention and close health inequalities. Better storage and sharing of data also requires a 100 million euro annual investment. Finally, to make it possible for the 25 GGD regions to strengthen their ability to coordinate and upscale in a crisis, they want an additional 25 million euros.

“The lesson of the pandemic is that basic care has not been sufficiently funded”, wrote the public health directors from the 25 GGD branches in a letter to Mariëtte Hamer, the independent informateur leading Cabinet formation discussions.

“We invest to prevent misery in the future. But we have not invested in foreseeable health risks for too long,” wrote André Rouvoet, executive board chair at the Healthcare Insurance Association. “We now also have to invest heavily in the basis of that public health: To be prepared for new health crises, but also to protect and promote people's health so that they live longer and healthier and are able to resist new health crises.”

“The coronavirus teaches the Netherlands that we must be better prepared for healthcare challenges and crisis”, umbrella organization GGD GHOR said.