Right Care at the Right Place
Background of the movement
Health is people’s greatest asset. Dutch people are mostly (very) positive about their health, even if they are ill or have a disability. People tend to emphasise what they are (still) able to do.
This fact must be the guiding principle in the design of support and care. The physical, mental and social functioning must be the starting point, and the provision of care and support must be organised in such a way that it seamlessly ties in with this. The right care at the right place. With this approach, the experienced quality will improve and increasingly scarce professionals and resources will be optimally deployed.
How this is given form depends on the context. Integral, coherent care organised as close to the system as possible, and further way if necessary, requires commitment, effort and the willingness to devise and implement new approaches. This can only be done at the regional level and with the necessary freedom to opt for solutions that are feasible, supported by everyone and that are not implemented on a voluntary basis. Stakeholders, each from the perspective of their own role, will have to make a joint effort and realising a shared vision of the challenge in the region is instrumental in this regard. What is the demand for care and support in the region, and how will this develop in the coming years? How does this align with the supply (where are the mismatches)? How is the region doing compared with the rest of the Netherlands? What are we doing well and where is there still room for improvement?
This vision provides a good basis for alignment and collaboration. Many parties are involved in that process, such as citizens, municipalities, professionals and organisations in the social and care domains, health insurers and care offices, knowledge and educational institutions and the commercial sector, which increasingly offers (digital) services.
Pillar of Appropriate care
The efforts to achieve Right care at the Right Place is part of the national effort to realise appropriate care. In the integral care agreement, national agreements have been made about working towards appropriate care. Appropriate care is value-driven, is realised together with and around the patient, takes place at the right location and focuses on health instead of illness. This approach must be adjusted according to the people and resources available to cope with the growing demand for care. Therefore, appropriate care is also labour-saving care. Read more about appropriate care here.
How does ZonMw contribute to the theme 'Right Care at the Right Place’?
We contribute in various ways to the national movement for the right care at the right place, and this includes a programme bearing the same name. Furthermore, we provide the secretariat for the knowledge platform Right Care at the Right Place. Additionally, the theme right care at the right place also occurs in many other ZonMw programmes.
Below, we highlight an example from the ZonMw programme Right Care at the Right Place.
Funding regional partnerships
In recent years, the programme has intensively focused on supporting regional partnerships so as to jointly facilitate the right care at the right place. With this, there is more attention for initiatives in different phases of development, from those that have just started to the realisation of plans to facilitate the right care at the right place. Partnerships could apply for these funds if they wanted to (further) develop the integral provision of care and support that met clients’ needs, with the aim of realising the right care at the right place. There was a specific theme for some funding rounds, such as the Right Cardiac Care at the Right Place and in the case of drawing up implementation plans for the Combined Lifestyle Interventions. For other funding rounds, plans could be submitted across the broad spectrum of support and care, for example aimed at prevention, curative care, paramedical care, mental healthcare and long-term care.
Within the ZonMw programme, a partnership preferably consisted of partners from different domains:
- Municipalities
- Health insurers
- Care offices
- Care providers
- Providers of support and welfare (social domain)
- Citizens and patients
In this programme, the term ‘region’ is not limited to a certain scale and can range from several neighbourhoods to a large municipality to a municipal health service (GGD) region, for example.
Do you want to implement right care at the right place?
Become inspired with some fantastic examples from professional practice. Take a look at our publications in the theme ‘The Right Care at the Right Place’ and visit the website of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (in Dutch) for more great examples.
There are currently no calls for proposals open in the programme Right Care at the Right Place. Curious which calls for proposals are currently open? Here, you can find all ZonMw funding.