Millions of euros could be saved on healthcare if doctors stopped giving patients unnecessary and ineffective treatment, former health minister Ab Klink says in a report published on Friday.

Klink spoke to healthcare professionals about the possibilities for dealing with the explosive rise in healthcare costs. All agreed the enormous waste in unnecessary and ineffective treatment should be tackled, reports the Volkskrant.
Doing so would save up to €8bn a year, says Klink. It would also be less drastic for patients than suggested methods such as raising insurance premiums and stopping payments for expensive medicines.
Impoved quality
Healthcare professionals would much rather improve the quality of the service by, for instance, avoiding medical complications and giving more time to diagnosing patients to see if the treatment is advisable.
Research into other countries shows this would lead to an annual saving of 30% on the healthcare budget, around €8bn. ‘It is an ideal scenario,’ says Klink. ‘In practice, the saving could be a bit less, but at least €6bn a year is achievable.’
At the moment, the average family spends 25% of its income on healthcare. Klink says if government policy is not changed, this could double. ‘And the growth in healthcare does not come from a greying population, but from a growth in the number of treatments,’ he says.
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