long-term corona complaintsPlans for more money and extra help for post-covid patients are in danger of being shelved. The government sees no point in expanding the compensation scheme for healthcare staff with long Covid. The idea of additional post-Covid clinics is also discouraged. Intended coalition parties are reacting expectantly.
A large majority of the new House of Representatives wants more money and better help for patients with long-term complaints after a corona infection. For example, parties want more infected healthcare workers to receive compensation, and politicians are also calling for post-covid clinics where patients receive better care.
However, plans for this are in danger of being postponed, partly due to the cautious attitude of the current outgoing cabinet, but also due to the ongoing formation of a new government.
With regard to the scheme for healthcare staff, the government fears lawsuits if the scheme is further expanded. Now 425 healthcare workers will each receive 15,000 euros because they became infected during the first corona wave and ended up at home with complaints. Trade unions and many parties believe this is far too small a group. Nurses and doctors who contracted long Covid after June 2020 should also receive money, according to GL-PvdA, among others.
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That party wants to release more than 20 million euros for this during the discussion of the Public Health budget in the House of Representatives this week. But outgoing minister Conny Helder (VVD) does not want that: in the first months of the pandemic, much was unknown and healthcare workers could not always work with face masks and protective equipment. Infection could therefore not always be prevented in the first wave. Things were different later in the year, Helder reasons after advice from the Council of State.
GL-PvdA nevertheless hopes for support from, among others, the proposed new coalition parties PVV and NSC, in order to enforce a generous settlement. But PVV and NSC (together 57 seats) are keeping their cards close to their chest. NSC will ‘still consider the proposals’, it sounds cautiously, the PVV also has to consider it. However, healthcare spokesperson Fleur Agema has already announced that the financial coverage of the proposals ‘is not sufficient’.
Earlier this week, Agema also held off when parties asked for support for a plan to quickly abolish the deductible, an old PVV wish. The party still wants that, but the PVV would rather arrange this in negotiations with the other three intended coalition parties.
The parties’ idea to help post-covid patients in outpatient clinics is also in danger of failing. The government has already allocated 32 million euros for research and aid, but Minister Helder does not want to impose on hospitals and practitioners how they organize that care, for example where in the country and in which hospital. That is up to the healthcare providers themselves.
GL-PvdA wants to force more specialized clinics to be established with an amendment proposal. But the cabinet does not want that, also because the money that the party wants to release is not yet available.
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