The influx of patients with mental disorders into the Long-Term Care Act (WLZ) is too large and must be drastically reduced. If necessary, financial measures are taken against parties such as municipalities, care administration offices and care providers.
This is what Minister Conny Helder for Long-Term Care and State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport Maarten van Ooijen state in a letter to the House of Representatives. According to the ministers, the excessive inflow into the Long-Term Care Act is not in line with restorative care and support that is offered as close as possible to one’s own living environment. According to the minister and the state secretary, this also puts pressure on the sustainability of care under the Long-Term Care Act, both financially and in terms of personnel.
Since 2021, patients who require long-term intensive mental health care fall under the Long-Term Care Act. Before that, they received this care under the Social Support Act (Wmo) or the Healthcare Insurance Act (Zw).
To lower
A number of measures are intended to limit the influx of psychiatric patients. This is now about three hundred patients per month and should initially be reduced by 20 percent. The ultimate goal is an influx of approximately one hundred patients per month. Administrative agreements have been made about this with parties involved in mental health care in the Wld and Wmo. In their letter, Helder and Van Ooijen state that they assume that these parties will make joint efforts to reduce the influx. But they do not rule out financial measures being taken against municipalities, care administration offices and care providers if this turns out not to have been successful at the beginning of 2024. This is to keep the long-term care affordable and accessible, according to Helder and van Ooijen.
Measures
The measures that are now being taken include clarifying the criteria for admitting patients with a mental disorder to the Long-Term Care Act. Sharper choices must be made and if in doubt, no Wlz indication may be applied for. There must also be regional cooperation on, among other things, action plans to achieve appropriate care and support for the target group. In addition, municipalities must issue longer-term decisions for patients with a mental disorder and a long-term need for support. Work is still being done on longer-term measures and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is investigating statutory amendments to the Wlz and the Wmo, such as tightening the access criteria in the Wlz and the introduction of a temporary indication for the Wlz.
