The crisis in healthcare has entered a new phase, the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) said in a weekly report to hospitals. This concerns the so-called phase 2D, the last level before ‘crisis phase’ 3.
It means that in the short term hospitals in the Netherlands will have to cancel a large part of their planable care, or have already done so to make more space for covid patients in hospital beds.
The National Acute Care Network (LNAZ) has asked outgoing minister De Jonge to officially ratify the new phase, a spokesperson said to NOS. At the moment, the new phase is not yet official, but the LCPS report is a strong signal that it is coming.
Groin fracture corrections and hip replacements
Plannable care, which falls in so-called classes 4 and 5, is largely scaled down in this phase. This concerns care where no permanent damage to health or loss of life is to be expected in the event of a delay of six weeks or more (class 5) and care where there is “some risk” in the event of delay of permanent damage to health or loss of life (class 4).
In concrete terms, for example, hip replacements and inguinal hernia corrections will virtually no longer be performed in the new phase. Surgeries where patients do not have to stay in a hospital bed can still continue.
Limburg hospitals go a step further and in many cases also cancel serious planable care (class 3), reports NRC. This includes heart surgery, brain surgery and cancer surgery.
Support from Defense
One of the elements of this phase would also be a “request for maximum defense support”. The Ministry of Defense says it cannot yet say anything about possible support, but “of course it is prepared to do so”. According to a spokesperson, discussions are taking place with the Ministry of Health, among others, but no concrete request has yet been made.
The day before yesterday Ernst Kuipers of the LCPS warned that if the increase in the number of hospital admissions continues at the current pace, the hospital occupancy will be at the same level within a week as during the highest peak of last winter. “And if it doesn’t turn, it’s going to be an even higher peak,” he said.
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