Care Initiative: H+ Welcomes Financing, Rejects Further Regulations

H+ clearly supports better working conditions in healthcare. Good framework conditions are crucial to retaining qualified professionals in the job, stabilising teams, and ensuring sustainable patient care. However, it is essential that selected measures are effective and implementable in everyday care.

H+ positively assesses the National Council's decision to fundamentally ensure the financing of additional costs through tariffs with a transitional arrangement. This principle is crucial to ensure that improvements in working conditions do not come at the expense of care delivery. H+ Director Anne-Geneviève Bütikofer notes: 'Anyone who wants better working conditions must also ensure their financing. Only then can the measures be implemented in practice without placing additional financial pressure on hospitals.'

H+ critically judges various approved individual measures, especially the legally mandated allowances for Sunday work, unplanned assignments, and the additional regulatory competencies of the Federal Council for on-call and standby duties.

Such inflexible requirements insufficiently consider the vastly different realities of hospitals and clinics. They may lead to additional bureaucracy, higher costs, and new staffing shortages, potentially impairing patient care.

H+ also views critically the obligation to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Good working conditions arise in practice from functioning social partnerships and flexible solutions on-site, not from rigid statutory obligations. Because in some hospitals or clinics, collective bargaining agreements are not practical or a guaranteed means for better working conditions. Often, better working conditions for staff emerge from practice rather than statutory regulations.

H+ points out that many institutions are already actively implementing improvements. Practical examples show that flexible working hour models, better planning, and targeted relief measures can effectively improve working conditions.

Furthermore, H+ rejects the personnel requirements adopted by the National Council. Even if the considerations behind them are reasonable, they are hardly feasible in practice due to professional staff shortages and lack of financing. Moreover, the personnel needs are dynamic and depend on various factors.

For H+, better working conditions are not an end in themselves. They help ensure high-quality care. Stable teams, less turnover, and reliable working conditions ultimately benefit patients as well - through more continuity, safety, and quality in everyday life.

The National Council has set an important highlight especially in financing the additional costs. It will be crucial whether the preparatory committee of the Council of States and the second chamber will follow the National Council. H+ will closely accompany further consultations and continue advocating for an implementation of the Care Initiative that is effective, practical, and financially feasible.

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