That is why, according to Kuipers, who was also involved in the bed planning as chairman of the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) at the time, it was decided before the start of the second corona wave to increase the national number of IC beds to 1700. previous position often had to say: this is the maximum we can create,” said Kuipers on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Health acknowledged, following a publication in NRC, that officials and hospitals were at odds with each other during the corona pandemic about the subsidy scheme for extra beds in intensive care units.
He recognizes the image that there was squabbling between his ministry and the hospitals ‘unbelievably good’: „Because I was involved. I know all of these discussions and that is why I read the article with some surprise, because that is only a very small part of the story.”
The reason for the disagreement was, among other things, the count of the number of IC beds in hospitals, Kuipers also said on Thursday afternoon. “The question is: from which starting point do you assume? The suggestion was that there were no numbers on this, but there were hard numbers for each hospital. These were numbers that hospitals themselves put in their annual report, or put on their website,” said the health minister. He therefore believes that the article in NRC provides ‘an incomplete picture’. “There was a lot of haggling, but especially with a selection of hospitals and that was mainly about their own starting situation. That wasn’t about ‘oh but we want to create 2000 beds instead of 1,700, or 2500’.”
According to Kuipers, the quarrel between the ministry and the hospitals did not ultimately lead to fewer IC beds. According to him, it has also had no impact on the corona measures. “The staff shortage was a much more important determinant. The number of IC beds, 10 more beds or 100 more beds, does not help prevent a lockdown when you are confronted with a pandemic.” Kuipers points to Germany, where there are many more IC beds, “but they also had to institute lockdowns.”
Opposition parties reacted furiously to the news earlier in the day. GL and Wybren van Haga have requested a debate on the matter. “Scaling up the number of IC beds is a difficult job, we all understand that. But if the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport discourages hospitals from scaling up the IC for fear of budget overruns, something has gone wrong,” said GL Chamberid Lisa Westerveld. The PVV is also furious: “The bastards would rather have a lockdown, prefer scaling down regular hospital care, prefer 95 billion euros on the national debt, prefer 22% young people who considered suicide, than invest in hospital capacity. So bad”, tweeted PVV member Fleur Agema. The SGP and JA21 also want clarification from the minister.