My earlier research on chronic care, gerontology and "verpleeghuis" medicine was conducted in the 80s at a time when the welfare state model itself was being problematised. Even though mine was a micro study of one institution using the intensive case study method with participant observation, I tried to locate it at the confluence of the emergence of a certain kind of medicine and care and the policies of the welfare state. In my short stay in the Netherlands I hope to be able to re-visit the field and study the changes that have taken place in the intervening time.