Covid in Vlaanderen: het manifest van de zorg

Abstract

Covid in Flanders: the clinical manifest of the health care worker The editorial board of ‘Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde en Gezondheidszorg’ collected a series of opinion papers from a diversity of health care workers in Flanders (Belgium): family doctors and specialists, nurses, pharmacists, students, hospital administrators, health insurance companies, patient organizations and governmental institutions. This combined information allows identifying the weaknesses in the current Belgian health care system, towards translation into opportunities for optimization in the future. The most striking messages are: the prevention of the dehumanization of care for both patients and health care workers, an urgent extension of the network for mental health care, the implementation and integration of digital media and remote care, and the canalization of clinical information and instructions, governed by strong and decisive leadership. The uniformity of these messages, voiced from different angles of the Belgian health care system in the aftermath of the pandemic, makes a strong document of these combined opinion papers, a document that can be considered the clinical manifest of the health care worker in Flanders.