1.01 Denmark needs a healthcare policy
The Danish nation can have the world’s best health service. If we only want to. Denmark is one of the most affluent countries in the world and Denmark has the qualifications, the necessary expertise and healthcare infrastructure needed for getting the Danish health service back into peak condition. But that requires that we are also ready to make a dedicated effort to achieving better health results.
The Danish health service is set to come under mounting pressure in the future. This should be viewed against the fact that Danish health results are already lagging behind those in the countries we usually compare ourselves with.
The Danish lifestyle has negative consequences for the general state of health. In that respect Denmark has been far too hesitant to take initiatives that would change the nation’s lifestyle behaviours, to detect diseases and prevent them in time.
At the same time, Denmark has chosen to invest less in healthcare than our neighbouring countries. It is difficult to imagine how we are to improve Danish health results when we spend less money than others.
But Denmark has been far too slow to take advantage of the new health technology potentials available to the health service. The countries we usually compare ourselves with are quite simply adopting the new technologies faster. At the same time, the nation's access to state-of-the-art health technologies is unequally distributed across the different regions of Denmark. This is not consistent with the concept of equal access to treatment which previously characterised the Danish health service.
Lif believes: - that Denmark needs a health policy. A health policy based on explicit targets for the nation's health. At the same time, health plans for how to reach the specific targets must be prepared,
- that a targeted initiative should be taken in the four areas that make up the precondition for achieving quality health results: Prevention, Early Detection, Treatment and Follow-up. If we know how to create a coherent health system, it will be beneficial not only for the nation’s health but also for the national economy,
- that Denmark needs to be better at making the most of the benefits of new health technologies. Quality and professionalism should be the key words. We need to be better at exploiting the latest health knowledge and capabilities, while national planning and management should ensure patients of geographically equal access to the latest advances,
- that Denmark should become better at comparing our health performance in relation to other countries. We stand to learn much from how other countries are better at reaping the benefits of innovative health technology.
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