Outgoing Minister Jan Anthonie Bruijn of Health, Welfare and Sport considers the chance that controversial anesthesiologist Jens Fischer can continue his umbilical cord blood treatments. The doctor from Veldhoven treated more than 200 children with an umbilical cord blood and wanted to cure autism, strokes and cerebral palsy. The Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) banned him because he had no permit. According to the ministry, getting such a permit for Fischer is virtually unfeasible.
The IGJ inspection report showed that the treatments of the Veldhovense Anesthesiologist are seen as cell transplants. Fischer sees that differently, he calls it ‘infusion therapy’. “We are doing it, the way the inspection wants it,” he said earlier to Omroep Brabant. “I think it’s strange that we can’t do this, a lot of research has been done.”
Yet, according to Minister Bruijn, it is unlikely that the doctor can get the right papers. “The permit is often about high -complex medical care,” he writes in a response. “That care is concentrated, among other things because of the required knowledge and expertise, with a limited number of specialized institutions.”
In the Netherlands, only a group of specialist hospitals currently has this permit. Due to the strict requirements and complex care, there is no small care provider who has successfully completed this procedure.
“It is unlikely that an individual care provider can meet the conditions.”
On paper, an individual can make a request to be able to perform treatments with an umbilical cord blood. “This application is not reserved for university medical centers.” But the minister does not see it happening quickly that this will also work. “It is unlikely that an individual care provider can meet the conditions.”
The treatments must also be proven safe and effective. “The granting of permits is strictly tested for that,” said Bruijn. Fischer himself claims that his treatments for autism are based on research and that the treatment shows good results. Gwendolyn van Gorkom, hematologist and expert in the field of blood treatments, called the treatments at Omroep Brabant ‘pure quackery’. According to Van Gorkum, the treatment is not reliable and hardly effective.
Van Gorkom also looked at Brabant at the request of Omroep Brabant A number of studies That the Swiss company CBC Health, for which Fischer carried out the treatments, performs as evidence of effectiveness in strokes and cerebral pars. According to her, a number of things stand out.
“The studies are usually small, set up in different ways and poorly comparable.”
“In contrast to autism, there is some scientific evidence in cerebral palsy that umbilical cord blood is doing something,” she says. The effects would be seen especially with mild complaints. “A small part of the studies shows that. But the studies are usually small, set up in different ways and poorly comparable. The treatment is also not always the same.”
CBC Health also quotes studies that mainly concern the safety of administering blood, not about effectiveness. “There is only one investigation between strokes,” Van Gorkom notes. “A follow -up study from the same authors is concluded that there is no effect. But that study is not mentioned on the site.”
The minister confirms that a foreign company such as CBC Health could also apply for a cell transplantation permit. “It is not exactly that a provider must be established in the Netherlands.” But then there are various other laws that need to be met in order to be able to provide care in our country.
CBC Health jerks off his hands from Fischer. According to its own words, the company only acts as an intermediary and has nothing to do with the treatments. The Swiss company is now considering legal action against the anesthesiologist.