[Call for action: the health sector as a driver of societal transition towards Planetary Health]. / Een oproep tot verandering.

Humanity is facing existential challenges that require urgent action to address the triple planetary crises. Drawing on the principles of planetary health, the paper argues that health professionals and the health sector have historically been important drivers of societal change, and that time has come once again for the sector to take up such active roles in addressing the planetary-health challenges. The paper provides an overview of the current frontlines of planetary health in the Netherlands: in education, research, new governance and sustainable leadership, as well as in various movements for greater transformative connection and transdisciplinary collaboration. The paper concludes with a call to action: for health professionals to adopt a planetary health perspective, consider the impacts on health and the environment, and rearticulate commitment to social and intergenerational justice, and practically engage with the frontlines of planetary health to work towards a more resilient future.

Learning for Universal Health Coverage.

The journey to universal health coverage (UHC) is full of challenges, which to a great extent are specific to each country. 'Learning for UHC' is a central component of countries' health system strengthening agendas. Our group has been engaged for a decade in facilitating collective learning for UHC through a range of modalities at global, regional and national levels. We present some of our experience and draw lessons for countries and international actors interested in strengthening national systemic learning capacities for UHC. The main lesson is that with appropriate collective intelligence processes, digital tools and facilitation capacities, countries and international agencies can mobilise the many actors with knowledge relevant to the design, implementation and evaluation of UHC policies. However, really building learning health systems will take more time and commitment. Each country will have to invest substantively in developing its specific learning systemic capacities, with an active programme of work addressing supportive leadership, organisational culture and knowledge management processes.

Multicultural health care in practice. An empirical exploration of multicultural care in The Netherlands.

This study presents a first assessment of the challenges faced by Dutch health care providers dealing with the increasing cultural diversity in Dutch society. Qualitative interviews with 24 Dutch caregivers and policy-makers point to a number of important difficulties encountered when confronted with the growing diversity of patient populations. The study focuses explicitly on the challenges health care providers perceive in their direct interactions with patients. On the basis of the observations of the 24 respondents five strategies were formulated to improve the delivery of care in a multicultural environment. Their findings were further evaluated by confronting the empirical data with care-ethical notions (attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness) and intercultural communication-theory.