The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) does not perform any planned operations in patients with a congenital heart defect for the time being. The decision was taken after reports on social safety and quality of care. Patients from the north have to go to hospitals in Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam or Rotterdam in the coming months.
The UMCG today calls all patients on the waiting list for surgery in the closed department. It concerns both children and adults, the hospital reports.
The hospital says that two employees have expressed worries ‘about social safety and quality of care and science’.
The UMCG does not explain that further, but in a statement the chairman of the UMCG, Ate van der Zee, says: “High -complex operations must take place under the best possible conditions. At the moment they are not fully present. That is why we have decided to stop the planned operations temporarily.”
Appointments of heart patients at the outpatient clinic will continue as usual, just like acute care and interventions for which people do not have to be operated on, such as heart catheterizations. Heart operations for adults without congenital heart defect also continue.
Van der Zee says that it was a temporary closure of the department a complicated and painful decision. He says he is confident that after investigation the operation program can be restarted, no later than 1 January.
“It is of great importance for patients and their families in the northern and eastern Netherlands, but also for the safety of acute care in our region that this specialized care remains available here. We will continue to commit ourselves, together with our partners in the Network Congenital Heart Defenses.”