General director AZ West fired

Lieven Vermeulen was the head of AZ West for 17 years. Nurse director Bert Cleuren succeeds him.

In a statement, the hospital explains more: “In the interests of the hospital’s progress, the Board of Directors has decided to end the collaboration with Lieven Vermeulen. The reason for his dismissal is in the field of communication and cooperation. In a hospital with more than 800 people, there are many internal interests that could no longer be looked after. Difficult progress was made in the internal processes. The Board of Directors decided to revive and shape the dialogue and internal functioning give with Bert Cleuren at the head of the hospital.”

Vermeulen was recently in the media because he promised a large reward in the search for a pediatrician due to a large shortage. AZ West emphasizes that the change of director is separate from the search for a pediatrician. “We are working hard on a solution together with the pediatricians. We can confirm that that solution will come, but more information is not available for the time being,” it sounds.

Commitment

Bert Cleuren: “Over the past 22 years I have gotten to know the hospital well and I know that there is a lot of potential among the employees to fulfill our mission as a high-quality regional hospital. That is why I have taken up the commitment of general manager. I want to work towards an AZ West where every employee feels good and a hospital that can provide quality care for patients in our region.”

AZ West is a regional hospital with more than 700 employees and doctors. It has about 260 beds for classical and day hospitalization. This makes it good for more than 10,000 admissions and more than 14,000 outpatients every year.