Brief History of the Doctors Collective
The Doctors Collective was created in 2020 out of concern about the proportionality of the corona measures. A public debate or doubt about government policy regarding the corona crisis was not possible. In the meantime, the Doctors Collective has grown to more than 2,600 medical professionals who, without financial or other gain, want to conduct and nurture the broad medical and social dialogue, in order to arrive at a more widely supported and optimal policy regarding the current health crisis.
Since 2020, we have seen the openness disappear from the scientific debate. Recommendations and measures were firmly proclaimed. A ‘government perspective’ arose that allowed virtually no other views and was disseminated unanimously by the media. In our view, this created the idea among the population too easily that the policy would be scientifically based and effective and that there were no other options.
The Doctors Collective is certainly not ‘against any government measure’, as has been claimed by some. Just like the RIVM, we as doctors stand for sensible measures such as hygiene, staying at home in case of complaints, good ventilation, testing in a medical setting or in the event of complaints – if this has therapeutic consequences – and the voluntary vaccination of risk groups with a proven safe and effective vaccine.
The difference in vision mainly lies in a different weighting of the threat posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak. We see a capacity crisis in the healthcare sector in particular. This capacity crisis is partly the result of a failing health care policy in recent decades. The risk groups for severe Covid-19 also partly coincided with the pandemic of diseases of affluence. In the eyes of the Doctors Collective, imposing generic measures on an entire population has done more harm than good.
We find it harmful that the bed shortage caused by the failing health care policy was used during the pandemic as a motive for long-term curtailments of fundamental rights and undemocratic legislative changes. Even recently, intensive care has been further scaled down, dozens of additional hospitals have been closed and collective bargaining agreements have been more difficult than ever. In the meantime, billions have been spent on far-reaching freedom-restricting measures and on strengthening a surveillance society in which the government increasingly intervenes in our privacy, as has now become apparent from the documents based on the Government Information (Public Access) Act (WOB) from the corona crisis.
Paint a full picture
From a medical and ethical perspective, we as Doctors Collective feel compelled to highlight a well-founded ‘different sound’. It is clear to us that there are different views on how best to serve public health. This health crisis therefore offers an opportunity to change the current system and to optimize health policy in a new, non-hierarchical or financial-economically driven way.
This requires an open and respectful dialogue. As a Doctors Collective, we will continue to stand for this and invite everyone else to help build this.
The Doctors Collective and the future
What are our wishes for healthcare and what do we want to contribute to?
We want to stand for healthcare that does more justice to the ecosystem
that we form together. A healthcare in which we embrace that getting and staying healthy is a process of patient and doctor together. The doctor sees his patient as a whole and, in addition to his illness, also has an eye for the patient as a person. The patient can be made aware of all possible proven treatment methods and has a voice and responsibility in this. The doctor is no longer seen only as the solver of health problems.
In a new system, health would come first, rather than disease or its treatment. That would mean an enormous change: in addition to the need to work more preventively, it also necessarily implies a different organization of society.
We are living in a special time right now. Due to the corona crisis, the problems in society and in healthcare are becoming extra clear. This is based on a money-driven society. A system that sees people unilaterally and above all as consumers. Where power lies with money, with large multinationals such as pharmaceutical, finance and tech companies. These companies have no eye on what is good or healthy for people, it is only about maintaining economic growth. As a result of this health crisis, we are once again experiencing how our society has become divided and weakened.
We stand for a new definition of growth: improving your well-being and the ecosystem around you. Let that be the foundation of our companies, hospitals, schools and governments. This will ultimately also benefit our health and healthcare.
- The Doctors Collective consists of like-minded people who are committed to a new world. We look for possibilities for connection. In everything we do, we look for the fulfillment of our common goals:
- do not harm each other;
- preserving the right to self-determination and physical integrity;
shaping the art of medicine from sincerity, transparency and humanity (instead of financial, business or personal gain).
- Based on shaping our values together, we say:
- when in doubt don’t do it;
- inform truthfully and completely;
policy based on subsidiarity (using the least intrusive means to achieve a certain goal), proportionality (there must be a reasonable relationship between the goal and the means used, such as medication or surgery) and also: compassion.
Because even if you are right in front of each other, you can recognize that the other person’s behavior stems from a positive intention. For example, someone tries to give themselves or the other safety. If we can see that behavior is based on a positive motive, that could be the connecting factor. People need each other and always will.
The short-term solution mainly lies in decentralized organisations: search in your own neighborhood for your circle, your system, stimulate each other within it, even if there is fear or you are concerned. Find something in each other with which you can support each other. In this way we build a new future together.
The board of the Doctors Collective | July 2022
An ecosystem is a collection of living communities of people, plants, animals and micro-organisms that form a continuously moving whole in exchange with non-living parts such as water, air and soil.
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Together we stand stronger. From fear back to confidence! Disclaimer: The Doctors Collective is not responsible for the content on the aforementioned pages of external parties to which reference is made. Sharing a page does not mean that the Doctors Collective shares all views. The Doctors Collective supports the gathering and sharing of (medical) information without censorship in order to stimulate an open conversation / scientific discussion.