For the time being, people with a heart defect are not being operated on in the UMCG University Hospital in Groningen due to concerns about ‘social safety’ and ‘quality of care and science’ in the heart department. That is what the hospital registers on Monday an explanation On the website.
The concerns were expressed by two employees, the hospital has the signals examined ‘carefully and independently’. In the statement, the hospital reports a recent departure from a pediatric heart surgeon. The hospital was not yet available on Monday morning for further explanation.
The “highly complex operations” for people with a congenital heart defect must “take place under the best possible conditions,” writes UMCG chairman of the State in the statement. “At the moment they are not fully present, so we have decided to stop the planned operations temporarily.”
Great impact
According to the chairman of the board, the quality figures and treatment results show that the care is “still at a high level”. Van der Zee: “This is a decision that you never want to make, because the impact on our patients and employees is great. Yet we have to stop temporarily, precisely in the interest of those same patients and employees.”
Every quarter, the UMCG performs around fifty operations on congenital heart defects, a hospital spokesperson told Anp news agency. “Some we can postpone safely, others will be operated on in another center.” The hospital therefore cannot say exactly how many patients are affected by the decision.
Agreements at the outpatient clinic and interventions for which people do not have to operate will continue, just like heart operations for adults without congenital heart defect.