23 April 2026
The Lung Alliance Netherlands (LAN) has adopted an ambitious new multi-year plan for 2026–2029 that aims to fundamentally improve how respiratory care is delivered across the country.
LAN is a Dutch respiratory health coalition supported by IRC. It does not deliver care directly; its role is to connect stakeholders and drive the system-level collaboration needed to turn existing standards into consistent practice.
LAN’s plan, titled ‘Working Together on Appropriate Lung Care’, was adopted at the Alliance’s General Assembly in March 2026. It responds to a clear challenge: while evidence-based guidelines for respiratory care exist in the Netherlands, they are not being applied consistently. Care remains fragmented, transitions between primary and secondary care are unreliable, and funding structures do not incentivise the collaboration, prevention and follow-up that patients need.
Over 1.2 million people in the Netherlands live with a chronic lung disease, and each year there are 42,000 hospital admissions for severe breathlessness and 7,000 deaths from COPD alone, costing healthcare systems and estimated €1.2 billion.
At the heart of the plan is the ‘Improvement Agenda for Transmural Interdisciplinary Lung Care’, a shared reference framework that identifies where patients are most likely to fall between the cracks as they move between care settings. The Alliance and its broad coalition of patient associations, professional societies, health insurers, knowledge institutes and industry partners will work across five themes following the patient journey:
- Growing up with asthma — pilot-testing standardised care pathways for children aged 6–18 years
- Prevention in existing lung disease — addressing smoking cessation, vaccinations and physical activity through a prevention manifesto
- Diagnosis and exacerbation management — merging existing regional programmes into a single national approach aligned with the COPD quality standard (subject to additional funding)
- Medication and adherence — tackling inhaler technique, medication shortages and sustainable inhaler use
- Palliative care in COPD — expanding the COMPASSION programme to five new hospital regions, with further reach through EU-funded projects
Rutger Haandrikman, Director of the Dutch Lung Alliance, said:
“The knowledge to deliver excellent lung care exists. The guidelines are there. But outcomes still vary too much from region to region, and too often patients fall through the gaps. With this multi-year plan, we bring the field together around a shared improvement agenda, and hope to drive the collaboration that turns existing standards into daily practice and better outcomes for patients and the public.”
The Alliance joined the IRC in 2023 and is an IRC grant recipient. Learn more about the national coalitions supported by the IRC.