Cantons ‘poorly prepared’ for Swiss healthcare reforms

Some 61% of voters agreed in 2021 that conditions for healthcare workers needs improving. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Most Swiss cantons are behind schedule at meeting their obligation to improve conditions for nursing staff, a study has found.

Voters approved measures to ease the workload of nurses in November 2021. The people’s initiative called on cantons to improve conditions for healthcare staff.

It is hoped that the reforms will boost the status of nurses and reverse a trend of healthcare staff shortages.

But a Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) survey has found only three cantons are fully ready to carry out the demands of the initiative. A fourth canton, Zurich, has almost completed preparations.

By contrast, ten of Switzerland’s 26 cantons still “have a lot of clarifications to carry out”.

The FOPH specifically points to a lack of progress at improving training courses, which the government is financing with CHF500 million ($540 million).

Less than a third of cantons have created a legal basis for fulfilling the demands of the initiative.

“Given the enormous shortage of nursing staff, this is incomprehensible,” Green Party parliamentarian Manuela Weichelt told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

The FOPH pointed out that the survey reflects the situation last summer and said it was confident that cantons would get up to speed.

However, the conference of cantonal health directors says the reforms are being delayed by a lack of detailed information from the government.