Humanity Above Bureaucracy

Jos de Blok receives the 2014 RSA Albert Medal for his work as founder of Buurtzorg, a transformational new model of community health care.

We are living in a change of eras. Our current models of energy, finance and healthcare are not sustainable for the future. We need new solutions based on ecological, human-friendly relationships. We need new organisational structures focused on meaningfulness and new economic principles. With a new consciousness we can improve quality of life for vulnerable citizens at a lower cost.

Driven by these ideas and beliefs, Buurtzorg was formed in Holland in 2006 - a movement of nurses who decided to take full responsibility for their patients in small self-organised teams with highly skilled nurses. The group believed that by simplifying organisational structures, they could develop communities and focus on the meaningful and trustful relationships between nurses, patients and neighbourhoods.

There are now 8500 nurses working this way throughout Holland - without hierarchy, solving problems for patients, working together, exchanging ideas, creating new solutions, and learning how to deal with new problems. The movement shows that craftsmanship, trust and integrating simplification offers a great deal more for society than bureaucratic and hierarchic organisations. In many countries people recognize that these basic principles make daily work more meaningful and sustainable.

Jos de Blok visits the RSA to receive the 2014 Albert Medal for his pioneering role as founder and CEO of Buurtzorg, and to show how the movement can now spread to the rest of the world.

Speaker: Jos de Blok, founder and CEO of Buurtzorg
Chair: Rowan Conway, director of the RSA's Connected Communities programme.