Minister sticks to decision: UMCG children’s heart center remains open (update)

Why from four to two pediatric heart centers
Every year, about 1,400 complex operations are performed on children and adults with a congenital heart defect. In about two hundred cases, it concerns newborn babies.

According to the standards, that number is too low to keep the surgeons’ knowledge and experience in order. There are also fewer and fewer surgeons in the Netherlands who can perform complex operations. There are about a dozen pediatric heart surgeons in our country, which is not enough to keep the current four pediatric heart centers open.

All involved teaching hospitals agree that pediatric cardiac care should be concentrated. But the four hospitals have been unable to agree for years on where that should be.