The Villa ExpertCare client council issues a cry for help. It criticizes parents that the healthcare organization is ‘not doing enough’ to guarantee care for their chronically ill children after March 31. Villa ExpertCare has announced that its four care locations will remain open for the time being, as long as no alternative places have been found for the children.
“Parents are desperately looking for alternative locations and are always told ‘no’,” says chairman of the client council Marcel Barzilay. At the end of January, ExpertCare announced that it would close the medical guest houses in Waalre, Rijswijk, Wezep and Vleuten due to high costs and staff shortages.
One of the 81 children who use these care villas is 10-year-old John from Assen. He was born with a muscular disease and suffered a damaged trachea after complications. Therefore, he needs constant care. To relieve his parents’ worries, John goes to a guest house in Wezep every other weekend.
Before ExpertCare took the decision to close its doors, it made commitments in advisory discussions with the client council: there would be an alternative care location for every child.
Although Barzilay “always had major doubts about that”, he wanted to give ExpertCare the benefit of the doubt. “It is now very clear that there are no other places. Everyone in healthcare knows that, from the trade organization to the interest group for child care. ExpertCare just refuses to acknowledge that.”
