The Zuyderland hospitals in Heerlen and Sittard-Geleen have about 5000 people on the waiting list for catch-up care. That is what Wideke Nijdam of the Board of Directors of Zuyderland says.
The waiting list has been doubled due to the corona crisis, which started exactly two years ago in Limburg with the admission of the first corona patient in a Zuyderland hospital.
Plan
Nijdam tells in a special broadcast of EveningGuests Corona that before the outbreak of the corona virus in Limburg and the rest of the Netherlands, about 2500 people were on the waiting list at Zuyderland for a medical procedure. Now that number has doubled. “We are currently making plans to see when we can start catch-up care.”
Cooperation
Nijdam also says it is looking at the other hospitals in Limburg. “We are looking at whether we can work together. We have 19 operating rooms in Zuyderland, of which 16 are currently open. We also notice that we cannot open everything due to our vacancies.” The board member does not rule out that it will be a while before the catch-up care starts. “It could well be in the summer, that will certainly take a long time.”
infections
These weeks, Nijdam is mainly concerned about the number of infections among the staff, because just like in the rest of Limburg, Zuyderland is also dealing with an increasing number of corona infections. “I received an app on Saturday morning that 195 employees are currently infected and there are also infections at other hospitals. The concerns are great.” The number of corona patients has also increased in recent weeks. “A few weeks ago we had about 30 patients, now that’s about 50.” That number is still a lot lower than two years ago. “There were then between 190 and 200.”
Clinical beds
In addition to catch-up care, Nijdam is also looking at the rest of hospital care for the coming years. “I don’t think covid is going away, so we will continue to keep corona patients in hospitals and I am convinced that the capacity in terms of the number of clinical beds will not be expanded,” said the board member. Clinical beds are the beds in the nursing wards. Nijdam wants to see how efficient work can be done in the coming years. “To see how we can also treat corona patients with the same capacity. We have also learned a lot in the past period.”
Staff
Another spearhead at Zuyderland will be staff retention. A report entitled ‘Werken in de Zorg’ recently showed that 43 percent of people in care stop working after two years. “We all struggle with that,” said Nijdam. The board member says that Zuyderland is doing as much as possible to retain employees. “Deploying people in other places, other ways of training, giving people more control over their own work. In this way we try to be an attractive employer.”
The entire broadcast is here to see again.