Nature For Health

Value-based health care for people and planet

While thinking about an ‘optima forma’ value-based health care system, the relationship with our natural environment comes to my mind.

The green physical environment around our homes and working places, such as gardens, parks, and nature areas, has become more important due to the corona crisis. They are places to safely breathe fresh air and to let worries fade away for some precious moments. The corona crisis has pressed our noses at the facts and showed how human health and nature are inextricably linked: no healthy people without a healthy planet. We should not go back to “normal” but move forward to restore the balance between man and nature. A recovery in which prevention is more important than cure.

The World Health Organization has therefore included in its “Manifesto for a healthy recovery from Covid-19” protection of nature as priority number 1. The United Nations is also giving higher priority to the themes of health and biodiversity, via the Global Sustainable Development Goals and the same is people for all relevant EU policies, including #EU4Health, the ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030’ and the integration of nature-based solutions in the European Green Deal to make Europe climate neutral by 2050.

It is of great importance that during the “restart” of society after the corona crisis, the positive relationship between nature and health is given top priority. Particular attention should be paid to the mental impact of the corona crisis and the way in which our green environment can help us to regain balance.

In my view, the concept of value-based health care should incorporate the close links between the health of people and the natural environment as much as possible, at strategic and practical levels. This will help us to work towards a health care system that does not only deliver optimal health outcomes relevant for people but also for the planet.

By serving both people and planet, this renewed and redefined health care system will deserve its name “value-based”.

Rob Wolters

Executive

Nature For Health