How much more can carry health care

Whether we like it or not, the healthcare system has changed radically over the last 30 years, and it will probably be even more so in the coming years. Why – because of all the possible variables that affect it. There are more patients, especially complex patients, the elderly, there are significantly more diagnostic methods and I could still list… I intentionally released healthcare professionals. Over time, everything seems to get softer outlines over time – as if nostalgia would wrap it in the warm color of memory. But we know that the truth is not always like that – the past was not always bright, nor fair, at least not for everyone.

Where the health system will go in the future is very difficult to predict. In fact, we all want further development, but in the right way. Even if governments reduce the payment of certain peripheral services within the healthcare system, the altruistic force in healthcare professionals will still seek the way forward. They will always try to find a solution for the most vulnerable – for children who are born with severe genetic diseases and whose fate often depends on the dedication and coordinated work of the whole team. Nevertheless, I wonder: how much can it be able to convey such a complex and sensitive system before the lack of support undermines it to the extent that it will no longer be able to fulfill its mission?

Since we cannot and, of course, we do not want to prevent the development of medicine and the healthcare system as such, we must ensure that the change will go in the right direction. In a democratic society, of course, this means that the public should understand the basics of the healthcare system so that it could reasonably decide on the political consequences of the development of the entire system and that the word of experts who get to know and work in it would also mean something. The current public attitude towards the healthcare system is extremely two -faced. Citizens expect that the national health system will offer them just about everything that has Western-European medicine on the table. And without queues, without concessionaires and private practices. They want an absolute separation of public from the private, and it seems logical to them that healthcare professionals are in the service of the state and that everyone who went to the medical faculty must decide to do so. Other professions can work in the private sector, doctors do not. Fortunately, we all agree that we need to help a godless sick child. Regardless of the circumstances, the coordinated and comprehensive action of the cardiology system, surgery, intensive interoperative and postoperative care must be ensured, along with all logistical processes within the clinical center and other European structures, including the use of a government aircraft.

From the point of view of deciding adolescents about the choice of profession, we currently have too few links between high schools and advanced technologies that are already changing our lives significantly. In schools, we rarely talk or learn about « current » achievements, such as Nobel laureates, although these achievements are our future. These are breakthrough ideas and technologies that re -design the world every day – these are signposts that show ahead. For example, basic concepts such as transplantation could start explaining in elementary or high school. In this way, young people would first understand complex topics that are crucial for the functioning of the healthcare system. I will not go into this here, as it is an extensive area, but without a broader understanding of these content, it will be difficult to build forward. At the same time, we need to find solutions that will develop the healthcare system forward, not neglecting a pedagogical and research point of view. If we want to take care of all citizens who need medical care in the future, we will need to educate much more experts than we have today.

Politics will also have to do its job. She will have to make some key decisions. The most important of these will be the regulation of the financing system of health services that an individual citizen actually needs, either under prevention or treatment.

It is likely that it will be necessary to create a system that clearly defines the « basket » of basic rights and services that will be accessible to all citizens through compulsory health insurance. At the same time, the state will have to provide financing for key health infrastructure, such as hospitals with emergency centers, with the aim of having a stable work in crisis – separate from the financing of current health services.

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Boštjan Kersnič, Ph.D. honey. VD Expert Director of SB Novo mesto, Chairman of the Committee on Hospital and Specialist Health at the ZZS.

The article is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily express the views of the editorial board.