Interview met straatarts Michelle van Tongerloo

A homeless, breastfeeding mother who cannot get into shelter, a patient who nearly dies from something that could have been remedied within a ten-minute consultation, a man with heart failure who is sent from hospital to hospital: it does not sound like the Netherlands. Yet that is what Michelle van Tongerloo encounters in her work as a street doctor. The distressing cases in her consultation hours are a reflection of a country in which financial security is becoming less and less self-evident. A country in which workers cannot find a home, patients get lost in a jungle of institutions and migrant workers do not receive the help they are entitled to. Healthcare has become a profit model, is Michelle van Tongerloo's confronting diagnosis, and helping people is becoming increasingly complicated. But she knows the medicine. Listening to the patient instead of the system. Giving what is needed instead of what is prescribed. A growing group of organisations and citizen initiatives show that it is possible. Reactions: 'Glowing and healing.' -Arjen van Veelen 'This book opens your eyes.' -Kustaw Bessems 'A passionate plea.' -Danka Stuijver 'Mandatory for every director.' -Tim 'S Jongers