The plan of outgoing care minister Ernst Kuipers (D66) to centralize pediatric heart surgery may go ahead. The university medical centers of Utrecht and Leiden/Amsterdam had objected to this plan.
The preliminary relief judge decided this morning that Kuipers’ decision currently has no ‘irreversible consequences’ and that there is therefore no reason to press the pause button.
Kuipers decided in April that operations from October 2025 may only take place in the UMCs of Rotterdam and Groningen. Young Drenthe patients are often treated in Groningen.
In this summary proceedings, the court in Utrecht only ruled whether the plans for centralization should be put on hold. The case will be substantively heard at the end of this year. The court will then make a final judgment as to whether Kuipers’ decision is lawful. The parties can then appeal.
Currently, operations on congenital heart defects in children are performed at four locations: the UMCG in Groningen, the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the UMC Utrecht and the Center for Congenital Heart Defects Amsterdam-Leiden (CAHAL), set up by the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Amsterdam UMC.
It has been the intention for some time that this pediatric heart surgery will be concentrated in two or three hospitals.