Since the iron curtain came down, healthcare services in Central and Eastern Europe have been in great turmoil. In some countries, the healthcare system has undergone four major changes in the past 15 years. The policy makers have greatly underestimated the amount of stress which each change process has caused. They made another serious error – they thought that outward changes in the system would be adequate.
It is no use changing the system if the people in the system are not changed either. It is far more important to change the people in the system than to change the system. For example, corrupt people in an outdated system will remain corrupt also in a revised one.
Now the question arises: what is the best way to change people in a healthcare system? By sending directives from the ministry of health? By introducing new laws? By appointing a new minister of health? By making a new five year plan? By introducing quality management and ISO standards?
All of the elements mentioned above are necessary and helpful, but they cannot do what needs to happen first – changing the hearts of those working in healthcare.
How do you change human hearts? The answer is profoundly simple and simply profound: Jesus Christ.
Some people will be tempted to go into anaphylactic shock at my proposal. Others will write me off as crazy and out of touch with the real world. But before you react too hastily, please hear me out.
Let me ask you a question first: Do you have a better answer to the deepest needs of healthcare workers? Where do you propose that they go to receive inner strength to cope with all the changes that are necessary and with the draining impact of working with sick and dying people every day? Do you really have a better answer than Jesus Christ has? Have you made an in depth exploration of who He is and what He has to offer?
For more than thirty years I have been struggling with these questions. Each time I came to the place of acknowledging: Jesus Christ knows better than I do what healthcare workers need and He can do for them what they cannot do and what nobody else can do.
What does this mean in practice? He begins a change process in the inside of people. This results first of all in changing people working in the same system. These inwardly changing people do not become better than others; they become different people – step by step they are transformed into becoming more like Him. As they are inwardly changed, they become involved in change processes at various levels. First of all, they change in a positive way in their relationships with colleagues and patients. Next, they change in the way in which they are doing their work; seeking to raise their level of professionalism. At the same time their interest turns towards change processes on an institutional level. How can we transform our healthcare institution into a place of even greater blessing to those who suffer? And ultimately, they become concerned about the transformation of healthcare systems.
Jesus Christ introduces an approach for the transformation of healthcare systems that works from the inside outwards. Policy makers think their approach which works from the outside inwards is better.
Take a look at what is happening in healthcare in your country. Can you honestly state that the approach of the policy makers is a better one?
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