Health is everyone’s business

The Corona crisis has shown us that our healthcare and nursing system is well set up – particularly in international comparison, we have no reason to feel ashamed. So everything’s fine, right? Wrong! In spite of all the applause for the way we have coped with the Corona pandemic, people who work in the healthcare and nursing professions are still suffering from a lack of social recognition. Young people rarely opt for a career in care. The lack of specialists is a daily challenge in all our care institutions. Medical care in rural areas still has ground to make up. The opportunities thrown up by digitalisation are only making themselves felt gradually in the hospitals, and tight budgets are making it even more difficult for care personnel to focus their work on the patients instead of just hurriedly ticking boxes on a checklist. The reforms that have already been initiated need to find their way into the everyday life of the care personnel. Negotiations about further changes ought to be on the agenda.

Shaping the health and care system together

The challenges in the healthcare and nursing system, many and complex, call for concerted, resolute action. Only if the experience gained in day-to-day work finds its way into the political decision-making processes can reforms be organised in the appropriate way. At the same time, new controls need to take effect as soon as possible in the everyday life of care personnel and in the hospitals and honorary organisations, and they need to be transparent and comprehensible. From round tables for nursing staff to dialogue events – ifok enables a close exchange of opinions and information between those at the basis and those who have to make the decisions. And particularly on account of the high dynamism and the pressing challenges, there’s one thing that is really important to us: we never lose sight of the people – the patients and, above all, those who deliver nursing and healthcare with a great deal of empathy and tremendous commitment. Every single day.