Where the Emergency help (SEH) in large cities such as Arnhem, The Hague and Utrecht are preparing for great bustle during King’s Day, the three hospitals in Drenthe expect it to be better than expected. “It’s not going to go over.”
The three hospitals see the same type of injury often coming in on a day like King’s Day. “Excessive drinking and drug use are the main reasons that people end up in the emergency department,” says a spokesperson for Isala. Feestgoers then lose consciousness due to too much drink, but there are also more accidents with bone fractures and head wounds as a result. “And unfortunately, just like with other major event, it sometimes happens that someone is mistreated and come to us with injury,” said the WZA.
According to the Meppeler Hospital, the party in Drenthe is celebrated less exuberantly than elsewhere in the country. Yet Isala uses extra staff on King’s Day, but then the center of gravity is mainly at the hospital in Zwolle. “We cannot say exactly how many staff are added in Meppel, because the extra staff is used flexibly for Meppel and Zwolle.”
In Emmen, too, more healthcare staff is walking around in the hospital corridors on Saturday, but that does not run out of the spots either. “We expect extra patients at the Emergency Department, but not that it will go over.”
In the WZA, the peak is mainly in the period around the TT and the crowds on King’s Day are not too bad. “Based on the figures from recent years, we do not use any extra employees in our department this year,” says SEH doctor Marieke Vos. “Although we still have the opportunity to scale up.”