9.B Netherlands Journey to Integrated Care 2020-2040: A Lecture with Professor Guus Schrijvers, Founder of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) and the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC)
| Tuesday, April 14, 2026 |
| 13:45 - 14:45 |
| Hall 1 (Auditorium) |
Overview
Bottlenecks, Long-term Goals and Integrated Care in the Netherlands
Guus Schrijvers, Health Economist, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, and former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Integrated Care
Between 2020 and early 2025, Robert Mouton and the workshop lead published more than eighty editorials on bottlenecks in the Dutch health system. These appeared in the Care and Innovation newsletter.
This session opens with an overview of seven key bottlenecks and how they were identified. It then defines what is meant by a “bottleneck” and sets out how this differs from concepts such as the Triple Aim and long-term system goals.
Current policy in the Netherlands focuses on three priorities: supporting integrated care through vanguard regions, reducing health system costs, and improving the attractiveness of working in health and care. There is no single approach that addresses multiple bottlenecks at the same time.
The second half of the workshop will explore how a more coordinated approach could work in practice. It concludes with five recommendations:
1. Prioritise workforce and financial pressures in the coming years.
2. Apply Rogers’ diffusion of innovation approach and avoid large-scale system reorganisations.
3. Support the spread of innovation from vanguard regions through changes to legislation and funding where needed.
4. Enable provincial governments to assess strategic care plans against access, availability, and quality for their populations.
5. Recognise that public health goals must guide decision-making, while also responding to wider economic pressures.
References
Mouton R & G. Schrijvers, Knelpunten in de zorg in de jaren 20, SWP Publishers, 2025.
https://nieuwsbriefzorgeninnovatie.nl/
Speaker
Mr Guus Schrijvers
Health economist and former professor of Public Health
University Medical Center Utrecht
Bottlenecks, long term goals and integrated care in Holland
Abstract
In the period 2020 - begin 2025 Robert Mouton and the leader of this workshop wrote more than eighty editorials about bottlenecks in the Dutch health services. They were published in the Dutch Newsletter Care and Innovation. This workshop start with an explanation of seven bottlenecks and the way we collected them. Then we define the term bottleneck and show the differences with triple aim and long term goal. At this moment the Dutch government 1. stimulate Integrated care with vanguard regions 2. tries to save billions of euros on health services and 3. tries to make working in health services more attractive. It has not an approach of solving different bottlenecks at the same moment. In the second half of the workshop we will try to do. Spoiler: the workshop finishes with five recommendations:
1. In the coming years, focus on the bottlenecks of staff shortages and money shortages.
2. Make use of Rogers' innovative approach and avoid 'big bang' reorganizations of the system.
3. Make it easier to disseminate innovative initiatives in vanguard regions by amending legislation and funding (if necessary).
4. Give provincial governments the authority to assess strategic care plans of care providers for access, availability and quality of care for the provincial population.
5. Realize that in a complex economic environment, public health goals must remain decisive, but that higher macroeconomic goals may arise.
References
Mouton R & G. Schrijvers, Knelpunten in de zorg in de jaren 20, SWP publishers, 2025, 136 pp.
See also: https://nieuwsbriefzorgeninnovatie.nl/
1. In the coming years, focus on the bottlenecks of staff shortages and money shortages.
2. Make use of Rogers' innovative approach and avoid 'big bang' reorganizations of the system.
3. Make it easier to disseminate innovative initiatives in vanguard regions by amending legislation and funding (if necessary).
4. Give provincial governments the authority to assess strategic care plans of care providers for access, availability and quality of care for the provincial population.
5. Realize that in a complex economic environment, public health goals must remain decisive, but that higher macroeconomic goals may arise.
References
Mouton R & G. Schrijvers, Knelpunten in de zorg in de jaren 20, SWP publishers, 2025, 136 pp.
See also: https://nieuwsbriefzorgeninnovatie.nl/
Biography
Guus Schrijvers, health economist, em. professor of public health And former editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Integrated Care
Plenary Speaker
Mr
Guus Schrijvers
Health economist and former professor of Public Health
University Medical Center Utrecht
For further information please contact the ICIC26 Conference Secretariat:
Abbey Conferences | Merchants Hall, 25/26 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, Ireland
Tel: +353 (01) 648 6100 | E: icic@abbey.ie
