The House of Representatives is not happy with the way in which discussions are taking place about placing pediatric heart care at two hospitals. Today the permanent parliamentary committee of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) sat around the table with representatives from the health care system. One of those parties was the UMCG, where the pediatric heart surgery department may close.
Former Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge decided to accommodate pediatric heart care at two hospitals, in Utrecht and Rotterdam. Current minister Ernst Kuipers initially continued with that plan, but came back to it at the end of last week. He will have the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) investigate the exact consequences if these types of operations only take place in Erasmus MC and UMC Utrecht. Kuipers is prepared “if there are good substantive reasons to do so, to reconsider the choice of locations.”
MPs express their concern
Doctors from the collaborating hospitals in Leiden and Amsterdam and the UMCG in Groningen expressed their concerns today during the so-called round table discussion. Several MPs also called on Kuipers to better substantiate why they are returning to two centers. For example, Wieke Paulusma (D66) called the conversation “very uncomfortable”, also for the parents of children with heart problems.
Concerns were also expressed about the atmosphere surrounding the debate. “I find it worrisome and painful to see how the mutual relationships are now. I feel that here and I also see it developing non-verbally,” said Attje Kuiken of the PvdA. Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks) remarked the same.
The House now has to make a decision because the specialist centers themselves have not come up with a solution, and according to JA21 MP Nicki Pouw-Verweij, that will “probably not benefit the content”. “I think that’s something that everyone should feel a little responsible for.”
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Research starts next week
The NZa will start this week with the investigation announced by Kuipers, chairperson Marian Kaljouw reported. She denounced the “great division” that has arisen. “And instead of a joint debate in the interest of the child, professionals and administrators measure each other”, says Kaljouw. “If this is the harbinger of the implementation of appropriate care, then we’d better do something else, because then it will never happen.”
Difficult relationships
In the debate, mud has been thrown between the academic hospitals in recent weeks. For example, doctors and administrators in Rotterdam and Utrecht claimed that real top-quality care is only provided in their university hospitals. The UMC Utrecht even states on its website that from 2016 it has come to the aid of the UMCG with pediatric heart surgery because things did not go well in Groningen.