For the time being no planned operations in children and adults with a congenital heart defect in the UMCG. The children’s heart center will remain closed until the beginning of next year. Employees have expressed their concerns internally about the ‘social safety and quality of care and science’. A slap in the face of the hospital, after years of fighting to preserve the department in Groningen.
More than three years ago, former care minister Hugo de Jonge (CDA) makes the decision to close two children’s heart centers in the Netherlands, including the UMCG. Northern Netherlands then revolts. In February 2022, for example, 260,000 signatures were offered to the Lower House, after a petition. The message was clear: the care must stay in the UMCG and ultimately that care remains there. But now the children’s heart center is temporarily closed due to internal problems.
The children’s heart center in the UMCG has had a number of turbulent years. In 2022 the center threatened to close. To prevent that, a petition was handed over to the Lower House. The Chamber managed to convince the minister that Groningen and Rotterdam had to remain open. In the end, all four children’s heart centers in our country remained after concentration – the four centers had to go up in two centers – was averted through the courts.
Slingerland himself has a daughter with heart problems. “But luckily she is now healthy enough and does not immediately suffer from the situation. I am happy with that.” Yet it feels wry that she has fought so hard for the preservation of children’s heart surgery and that it now closes temporarily.
“Then I think: we have been doing so well with each other, and as the north of the Netherlands we have been as one. That we have managed this if northern people show that we stand for it together. Where did this go so wrong that this is no longer possible?”
She is worried about the parents and children who were already on the waiting list. “The UMCG is still in the neighborhood for all of us, but not the hospitals in the Randstad. Then you suddenly have to travel two hours extra, that has quite an impact. The uncertainty is now great.”
Nevertheless, she understands the hospital’s decision, which also indicated that the quality of care is not optimal now. “Then it is good that you take a step back. It is of course very specialist care. You have to do that with sufficient knowledge and stability.”
Slingerland hopes that it will be stable enough from January to be able to open the children’s heart center again. “The UMCG is a very good hospital and they provide good care. They managed to get my daughter off the edge of death a few times and I am still grateful to them every day.”