What does NRC think | Make the profession of district nurse and carer more attractive

‘Under debrision of the budget’ – It is concealing language for medical care that has not been given. The 165 million euros that Minister Agema (Public Health, PVV) said that he could save on the neighborhood nursing last week, seems misable because that budgeted amount was not spent on neighborhood nursing in 2024. But keeping money on the budget does not mean that that money is not necessary. « Despite the growing demand for district nursing care, less money has been spent on the sector than budgeted, » writes the Dutch Healthcare Authority in the ‘Statement of the Care 2024’. Zorgverzekeraars Nederland and branch organizations are looking for « how this is possible. »

This is possible because there are too few district nurses; 5 percent of full -time vacancies are unfulfilled, so that part of the care for the elderly and chronically ill at home is not delivered. Every report on neighborhood nursing started in recent years: there are too few nurses who want to work in the neighborhood. The outflow, due to work pressure and moderate reward compared to other sectors, is high.

In May 2024, outgoing Minister Conny Helder (Long -term Care and Sport, VVD) wrote to the House of Representatives that there has been an ‘rising underrun’ in spending on neighborhood nursing for several years. More and more often, providers cannot accept new clients due to a lack of capacity. On average, 30 percent of the elderly who the doctor state states that a visit from a nurse is needed at home, only after a week or more.

At the same time, the question is growing. Due to the aging population and by government policy to close care homes and allowing the elderly to live at home longer. The average age of patients who be nursed at home is 75 years old.

In the meantime, 92 percent of the over-75s live at home. If they end up in the hospital, for example, after an ugly fall, they often cannot go home temporarily because there is no partner or family to take care of them and there is no district nursing. They are forced to stay in a relatively expensive hospital bed, which is called ‘wrong beds’ problems in the hospital world. In 2023, 50,000 elderly people slept in a ‘wrong’ bed, for a total of 274,000 days. For the time being, that number is only increasing: four years earlier it concerned 36,000 elderly people. The under -exhaustion of one budget is therefore the over -exhibition of the other budget – that of the hospitals.

And the nursing home? There the number of beds by the previous cabinet is limited to 130,000. The sector could no longer grow, said former minister Helder time and time again because, again, the staff is missing. The conditions for arriving at one of those 130,000 places are becoming stricter every year: only when an older person is whole demented, single and immobile, she, whether he is now entitled to a bed in a nursing home. Last year, 22,000 of those elderly people waited for one of the 130,000 places.

The start of a solution is that employers and the government do more to make the profession of district nurse and carer more attractive. In bizarre contrast to the recent cut, Agema seemed to be found in December when she wrote the Chamber: « It cannot happen that at some point we have too few carers who help our very oldest with things like washing, dressing and hair combing. Tackling the staff shortage in care and well -being therefore has my greatest priority. » That can indeed not happen.

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