January 2019

4 kopie1During the first week of January, we were able to speak and spar a lot about building elderly care and well-being for the elderly in Beijing. Invited by  Beijing Research Center of Urban System Engineering. Chinese cities are very curious about how it works in the Netherlands and other countries. What is needed to build a good and coherent system in which prevention also plays an important role? How care can be given shape in districts? What can be the meaning of neighborhood centers and day care for the elderly? How important is a good insurance system that covers costs for poor older people? In Beijing, there will be 800 small-scale neighborhood centers for older people next year, in addition to the 200 that are now available. It is also curious what home care can mean, until now home care is still relatively unknown. And that, of course, in a completely different context and scale. China is different from the Netherlands, so it is not about 'exporting' existing services that we know here in the Netherlands, but looking together to find out what can be relevant. We also talked a lot about how technology can support developments. Many developments in China are going fast in that area. It is easier to connect all kinds of data with each other. For us relevant and justified privacy legislation that is often in the way in the West. In China, developments are often also strongly top-down. That is not easily imaginable here. Inspired by what you learn from each other. What is striking is the enormous drive to learn and to continue. It was an instructive and good week, with talks with the Chinese Ministry of Health, the Dutch embassy and with investors in healthcare. There are so many questions in China in which the Netherlands and the expertise from here can be of significance.

 

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