Playing your own judge like at the care farm in Wedde is outrageous and dangerous. But it is also particularly annoying that the government allows these kinds of abuses to simmer.
The owners and employees of the now closed care farm in Wedde, where abuses have taken place in the Netherlands, according to Undercover, have been threatened by TV viewers who have incited each other via social media. Playing this in front of your own judge is outrageous, extremely unwise and dangerous.
The inspectorate and police had already intervened against the abuses at care farm Aurora Borealis and the House of Representatives and the minister have already spoken of it as a disgrace. Yet the broadcast of the program apparently had such an impact that people have lost their temper.
This is serious, because it can also cause damage to those involved who have nothing to do with it. Moreover, the court has not ruled on it yet. We just don’t know everything yet about what exactly happened.
What we do know is that similar scandals have occurred before at care farms and other small-scale care initiatives. This is often care that is largely privatized and where clients receive money to buy their own care. It has been known for several decades that this system of personal budgets is very sensitive to fraud and inadequate or even harmful care. But nothing has really been done about it for far too long.
For example, fifteen years ago, similar problems occurred at a care farm in De Groeve. Since then, several cases of healthcare fraud and inadequate healthcare in Groningen and Drenthe have been brought to light by journalists. Each time, politicians spoke of it afterwards as a shame and that care location was tackled or closed. But the system that actually provokes this kind of problem has never really been addressed.
Personal budgets and small-scale care in a non-professional setting can seem very attractive to those who are stuck in the bureaucracy and rigidity of large unwieldy care organizations. But the system provokes so much fraud and other abuses that it is no longer socially responsible. The vigilantism around Wedde cannot be justified in any way. But allowing such a social wrong to simmer on and on is asking for trouble.