Marina Eckenhausen, Inspector General of Healthcare and Youth, has posted a message on the website of the Inspectorate in which she writes that she is shocked by the images in the TV program Undercover of ‘care farm’ Aurora Borealis in Wedde.
‘I have no words for it,’ she writes igj.nl . “How awful to see this on television. terrible what the vulnerable residents had to endure.’
She writes that the inspectors already saw the images in December. ‘And then all the images, the raw film material that Alberto Stegeman had given to the police. () A few days after that, we went to Aurora Borealis and intervened. () The residents have been given a different place with the help of the Care Office Groningen. I sincerely hope that they are doing better now.’
‘We can never look everywhere at all times’
Eckenhausen himself raises the question: ‘how could this have been so bad for years?’
‘I don’t want to defend myself. Because as an inspectorate, we are responsible for monitoring the quality and safety of healthcare in the Netherlands. Healthcare providers must provide good and safe healthcare. And we supervise that.’
‘But still: there are about 45,000 healthcare providers in the Netherlands. From home care, general practitioners, dentists, nursing homes, care for the disabled, mental health care, care for asylum seekers and youth care to hospitals, pharmacists and manufacturers of medicines and medical devices. A very broad field with approximately 1.3 million people working in healthcare. With our almost 600 inspectors, we can therefore never always and everywhere watch. We mainly look at where the risks are greatest. And we respond to reports and signals. From healthcare providers and care providers, and from patients, clients and their families.’
The Inspector General therefore calls on people to report abuses. ‘First do that with the care provider himself. That often solves a lot. The care for people with disabilities in the Netherlands is often good,’ she concludes. “But every bad apple like Aurora Borealis is one too many.”