Here you see such a polder, very typical for the Dutch countryside. Because of these 'polders', tile Dutch model of health care and of economy is sometimes referred to as 'the polder model'.
screen 6 (Amsterdam)
And of course I want to show you the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, a city many of you may know. Especially tile canals are very well-known. Many Japanese tourists visit Amsterdam. The coming of the first Japanese tourists is for us always a pleasant event, because it is a sign of the new season. When they arrive we, in Amsterdam, we say to each other: 'I saw the first Japanese tourist, spring is in the air!'
screen 7 (VU zickenhuis)
And this is the last picture before we really start. It is the University Hospital Vrije Universitoit, the hospital where I work. It is a big university hospital in Amsterdam with more than 700 beds. At the left you sec the outpatient department, on the other side of the road is the clinic. Recently a new 10-stores department has been built, exclusively for intensive care patients. And there is also a helicopter deck. The helicopter goes to emergencies in the surrounding of Amsterdam, to treat patients on the spot.
This introduction of Holland is not quite for fun, In organizing health care it can be very important what the distances are between different areas and what the infrastructure is like.
When I was in Canada it was clear that they had to organize health care in a different way because it is such a huge country, in some places very thinly populated.
