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Health Community: Voka's network for well-being and care

The tension between the increasing demand for care and the limited public funds available drives us to be creative. After all, healthcare will not survive unless the barriers between sectors, healthcare locations and healthcare organisations are removed. We have neither the people nor the resources to continue working along these lines. Demands are changing, too: the user of today and tomorrow is no longer the “patient” of yesterday; healthcare users expect to be offered different, more flexible and sufficiently high-quality care. These economic and social data make it clear that the white economy - the whole range of services and goods in all branches of healthcare - will continue to gain in importance in the years to come.

A long-term transition plan for care as a policy priority for Voka Our health care is close by, fast and accessible to the citizen, with a high degree of satisfaction. However, there remains considerable room for improvement, with overuse and underuse of care, and inequalities in its outcomes. The needs arising from an ageing population and innovation are adding to the pressure. As a result, the sustainability and affordability of care is being seriously challenged.

We have a system of medical care (biomedical model, with funding that rewards this) and little or no health care (prevention - biopsychosocial model, with funding that inhibits this). The user profile is also evolving. The citizen as a care seeker rightly demands attention to all their needs and expectations, and they are more and more becoming the driving force. They no longer want to be boxed in by an inadequate care system. They do not care about the division into sectors (inside and outside care) in terms of well-being, health and quality of life. At the same time, we come up against the borders between the supply and demand side of expectations, knowledge, skills, choice and participation. We need to deal with these consciously and not in a polarizing way. Further, we are struggling with new technological possibilities, with or without added value, whether or not in the healthcare system. Transparency is often lacking. We are aware of the room for improvement regardless of the continuous progress made. The balance between these priorities is essential: • Scarcity and lateness in prevention, psycho-social support and family support. • The estimated projected needs (care and cure) due to the ageing population, the increase in chronic diseases. • Gaps (insecurity) between care providers within many care pathways, with a lack of seamless care. • The well-known set of quality indicators and subjective quality where we can score better in terms of outcomes, overuse and underuse of care. • The margin for improvement in participation, co-determination and participation. • The impact of financial and social barriers on care use and outcomes. • The waste of resources linked to overuse, underuse (cost of complications, non-care-related cost of poor welfare and illness), misuse (idem) and overcompensation (skewed reimbursement versus cost evolution). • The slowness with which positive disruptive innovation is anchored in daily care and the lack of continuous screening for added value as soon as it is operational within the care system (with adjustment, addition or deletion when indicated). • Challenges related to well-being at work, both within and outside care. Equally, the emerging staff shortage (lack of care professionals).

All these challenges must be tackled together. As many areas of reform are established, we are focusing on more prevention, new care models, different roles, care digitisation and financial incentives in function of what matters (value-based). This move from “should it be different?” to “yes, it should be different” is itself already a great achievement. The same goes for the first steps in the reform.

© Medialounge © Medialounge

© Medialounge © Medialounge

But if we want to succeed in the ambition of (maintaining) a sustainable healthcare system that provides good quality for everyone and is a good place to work, we must make the further coherence and timing of reforms clear on the basis of concrete, overarching objectives based on a long-term vision (long-term transition plan). A number of holy grails must be sacrificed (daring to reform).

To this end, five fundamental building blocks need to be reformed thoroughly: 1. Reformed payment systems (incentives) to prioritise quality, safety, efficiency, innovation and well-being at work. 2. Reformed healthcare funding (sources, budget and allocation criteria), participation, social accessibility and financial sustainability. 3. Reformed healthcare landscape (recognition, programming, planning, coordination) for the benefit of the set objectives and priorities. 4. Reformed data and information flows (digitisation). 5. Reformed institutions that better integrate and coordinate the above building blocks in policy terms.

These are priorities that we at Voka within Health Community are committed to, with a focus on what still needs to be realised during this legislature and what we systematically schedule for the next legislative periods. We are committed to an innovative and positive momentum in the welfare and care sector in Flanders and Brussels. With a group of as many as 500 welfare and care enterprises, companies, knowledge centres and user groups, we are moving away from the traditional boundaries between profit and non-profit, between citizens, carers and entrepreneurs, and resolutely opting for an interdisciplinary approach. We want everyone to leave their islands and to think, work and innovate together.

The members of Health Community strengthen each other by sharing knowledge and exchanging experiences. After all, there are many opportunities within the group to anchor knowledge, services and products, to respond swiftly and meaningfully to the rapid developments in healthcare. Health Community ensures the right match, facilitates partnerships, provides support and propagates this. Based on a common interest, we aim to take wellness and care in Flanders and Brussels to a higher level. More specifically, Health Community organises about twenty sessions a year on the various building blocks of well-being and care: “integrated and quality care; innovation, technology and digital transformation; financing, which stimulates to do what is right; prevention and well-being at work”. Each thematic session is a starting point, after which we outline the specific trajectory over time together with our members, experts and experience experts. Each Health Community member can include a specific commitment as a guest speaker/lead/ambassador/future thinker within these themes.

The policy must also contribute by providing the appropriate framework. Thanks to the support of Voka's wider network, we engage in an ongoing dialogue with policy actors and proactively formulate proposals to make progress. We influence policy in welfare, care and family support (Flemish, federal and European policy level) from a balanced bottom-up and top-down approach. Leaders (and good cases) are strongly mobilised in consultation with the relevant policy actors (cabinets, parliament, administration…).

We make use of notes, (short) papers, debates and/or opinion pieces containing the state-of-the-art and policy recommendations bundled together based on prioritised welfare and health themes. Finally, members can subscribe annually to learning trajectories with a focus on innovation and business development within care entrepreneurship and well-being at work.

Need more information? Do not hesitate to visit www.voka.be/healthcommunity or contact Ria Binst, project manager for Health Community, Mobile: 0477 52 41 30.