It says ‘election manifesto’ on the cover so you would be justified in expecting a cohesive plan to guide the Netherlands through the next four years. But the PVV’s healthcare plans do not begin to meet the challenges of the sector, writes Barend van Lieshout.

The PVV is mostly against. Against the Kunduz coalition, against bed sores, care giants, top brass, managers and red tape.

That’s not entirely true. There’s also a lot that needs to be stopped or banned so what you can expect is a number of new plans to sort out the lack of financial wisdom of healthcare bosses and a crackdown on the abuse of the elderly, care giants, fraud and such healthcare fripperies as outpatient clinics for minor ailments.

Money is no object in the PVV’s healthcare plans. The Agema fund (the sum of money arbitrarily pumped into long term care which in the past often left the sector baffled as to what to spend it on) is back in business and the PVV is also rejecting anything brought forward which might cut costs and improve quality.

Enabling the elderly to remain in their homes longer is not seen as a way to prolong independence but as an attack on the care home as an institution. The fact that, compared to to other European countries, the Netherlands is spending a lot of money on the care of the elderly and is very quick to offer intramural care is lost on the PVV.

Beer mat

The PVV does mention cutbacks. Heathcare managers can be cut by a third, the party proposes. Apparently the PVV thinks that the care providers, who are having to watch every cent, have no idea of the usefulness of managers. Such a simplistic world view is not uncommon, especially when people have had a few.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict suddenly becomes a matter of just signing that peace treaty, the banking crisis can be solved by really giving it to the bastards, and traffic jams will disappear if we all drive at 100 kph at the same time.

Come hangover time, these brilliant plans are usually seen for what they are. The PVV, however, decided the beer mat scribblings of the last party meeting would make a good manifesto. 

Hospitals, for instance, should be fined if it takes more than one visit to solve a patient’s troubles. More visits are clearly an act of deliberate sabotage which a sizeable financial punishment will put a stop to.

We also need more and better doctors. Not many would argue against the need for better doctors but we also need better plasterers, estate agents, vicars and politicians. Unfortunately, there was no space on the beer mat for the why and how of better doctors. 

Expensive

If the PVV manifesto – the bits of it that are understandable – has anything to do with it, healthcare expenditure in this country would soar. The PVV offers no solutions for rising costs, but pumps extra money into the system willy-nilly.

The effect will result in Henk and Ingrid forking out more and more of their money for healthcare. The only conclusion I can come to is that the PVV is preparing for a relaxing time in the opposition benches producing more froth.

Barend van Lieshout is a healthcare adviser at Rebel

This is the seventh in a series on the healthcare plans of the (main) political parties.