According to Health Minister Ernst Kuipers, the best way to combat corona is not to focus on extra capacity in the intensive care units, but to focus on preventing the spread of the virus. “We should focus on keeping as many people as possible out of there, instead of increasing the number of ICU beds indefinitely to accommodate that.”
That’s what he says in news hour, during a conversation about the long-term approach to the corona crisis sent to the Senate and House of Representatives today. It states how the cabinet wants to prepare the country for a possible new corona wave and wants to prevent far-reaching measures such as lockdowns from being necessary again.
Peak period
“Many millions of people were infected during the corona period,” says Kuipers. “In the first three months of this year alone, there were 6 million infections, one in three Dutch people. That has led to a total of about 100,000 people who ended up in hospital.”
If that happens in a short period of time, “there is no healthcare system in the world that can absorb this, not even the Netherlands,” says Kuipers. “We have periods when the number of infections increased by 70 percent in a week. If the capacity in the intensive care unit is 20 percent higher, you can go two days longer.”
Not the vulnerable spot
Meanwhile, the pressure on the intensive care unit is still great. Nationally, there are now between 100,000 and 120,000 more people than before corona on the waiting list for treatment.
Iwan van der Horst, president of the Dutch Association for Intensive Care, said last Saturday in news hour that although more nurses were trained during the crisis, just as many left. Van der Horst: “We don’t want to stop here, but continue to grow so that we will soon have more beds open with more people. So that when a wave comes again, we can absorb it better.”
Yet the ICs are not the vulnerable place in the field of corona, thinks Minister Kuipers. “The ICU is the very last refuge for a patient with corona. That is a situation that you want to avoid at all costs. For the situation without corona patients, the capacity has been sufficient for years, and we have also had additional capacity for the past two years. had corona patients.”
Social Impact Team
Another striking point in the long-term approach: in addition to the OMT, there will also be a Social Impact Team (MIT), which will advise on the social, societal and economic impact of the corona measures. Former GroenLinks party chairman Jolande Sap becomes chairman.
“If you focus on the infections, the virological part, the degree of disease and the number of patients, you can lose sight of other aspects,” says Kuipers. “For example, the major impact that the measures have had on education. That is why we have ensured that there is now a different advice in addition to the OMT advice.”
Management
In the previous corona periods, the predecessor of Minister Kuipers, Hugo de Jonge, regularly encountered the limitations of his position. For example, he was not the boss of the GGDs. It is not yet stated in the plan that this has now been arranged.
“We have just set up a national infectious disease control functionality for this,” says Kuipers. “They must centrally manage the GGDs. In addition, I am working with the national acute care network and the acute care regions with the question: how do we ensure that management is much clearer in a crisis situation.”
Watch the entire interview with Minister Kuipers here:
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“The chance that the corona infections will increase again at some point is high”
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