A manifesto for healthcare reform in Germany

Sciana Fellows in Germany call for a joint effort to rethink and adapt mechanisms in the country's healthcare system

Imagine … healthcare with a 21st-century boost. More responsive to patients' needs, more inclusive, better performing, and less stressful to all involved. And yes, it can be done! This is what Sciana is about.

Imagination is only the starting point. Transformation in health and healthcare needs impulses and experts, leaders and collaborators – and it also needs political attention and involvement. Ultimately, this transformation stands and falls with reforms in the structures of healthcare delivery and healthcare systems.

This is a challenge to us as health and healthcare experts, leaders, and changemakers united cross-nationally in the Sciana Network. A group of Sciana Fellows, led by ourselves, has now taken action and drafted a manifesto for healthcare reform in Germany.

Addressing the new government coalition elected in the September 2021 general elections, we call for a comprehensive and joint effort to rethink and adapt key mechanisms in our healthcare system. Two areas are of particular importance: aligning reimbursement schemes with the overall goals of better healthcare and embracing the digital transformation of healthcare.

In both areas, we need to shift away from patterns of the past and make bold and necessary steps towards the future. And in both areas, calls for reform have so far been met with much resistance. This is why we suggest the Sciana way of a solution-oriented dialogue centred on the greater good of health and healthcare to create new momentum.

Please look at the manifesto (only available in German) for further details of our call for action. Thanks to the active support of Sciana Senior Advisor and former German Federal Minister for Education and Research Edelgard Bulmahn, we will have a chance to discuss further with MPs from the three main political parties of the newly formed German government coalition.

This article and comments represent the opinions of the authors and commenters. They do not necessarily represent the views of their corporations or institutions, nor of Sciana: The Health Leaders Network.