Research by RTL Nieuws shows that several patients have died, because they were not allowed to physically visit the GP or midwife.
These are patients who did not have a corona themselves, but other serious complaints. They turned to this spring for help, but were only contacted by email and telephone.
Minister: irreversible suffering
The Ministry of Health confirms in a response to RTL News that people suffered health damage during the first corona wave. “It has led to very serious situations and, in the event of death, to irreversible suffering, and that is of course terrible,” said Minister Tamara van Ark.
The ministry does not yet know exactly how many people are involved. Now that the number of corona patients is increasing sharply again, regular care must be prevented from coming to a standstill. Van Ark has therefore asked the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) to map out the health effects of, among other things, delayed, avoided and not provided care. The RIVM has announced that they can say more about this in the coming month.
Pregnant Yelena lost baby during lockdown: ‘Taken seriously too late’
–
–
Hans and Jeroen lost their brother Wicher this spring. “He was sporty and never ill”, says Hans. “In April he got a gigantic stomach ache, he could hardly walk. He said: ‘Hans, I will be given pills, but they are not examining me. That is due to corona’.”
“Those were pretty much the last words I heard from him”, says Hans. Everything went by phone. He was not physically examined because the GP adhered to strict visiting rules for their patients.
Stomach bleeding
A week later, Wicher died at home alone. He was found by the police next to his bed. The police report states that everything indicates that he died from the consequences of a stomach bleeding. “He just wanted them to have examined him, because he didn’t trust it himself,” says Hans.
–
–
The brothers are convinced that Wicher would still have been alive if there had not been a corona. You do not have to die of a stomach bleeding, they say.
Don’t shut down healthcare
After Wicher’s death, the brothers still had contact with the doctor. She indicated that she was very reluctant to receive a patient in the practice because of the corona measures.
“This should never, ever happen again, you must keep access to healthcare at all times. Whatever virus is circulating, access to healthcare should never be closed,” says Jeroen.
–
–
Daughter stillborn
After 31 weeks of pregnancy, Yelena and Hinco lost their unborn child, Feetje, earlier this year. In the days before things went wrong, the worried Yelena (34) called and emailed the GP and midwife several times. She complained of swollen feet and emailed a picture of her face. That was swollen, because Yelena was holding moisture.
An omen of preeclampsia, but she’s not allowed to pass by. Hinco: “We were kept at a distance, contact was via the app and telephone.”
–
–
On the day that it went completely wrong, the midwife only came by after the second phone call from Yelena, when she said she no longer felt life. “She went to measure my blood pressure, which was sky high. She started looking for the baby’s heartbeat and then there was actually a very long silence,” says Yelena. “Then straight to the hospital and the doctor said I can not find it, there is no heartbeat.”
Viable
Yelena: “My child was 31 weeks old and she was just viable. She just should have been picked up on time. If the midwife or the doctor had responded in time by measuring blood pressure or taking me to the hospital on time, it would have been otherwise ended. “
The hospital has investigated the cause of Feetje’s death. One of the reasons is ‘that the corona measures have caused the signals to be underestimated due to the lack of physical contact with the care providers’.
–
–
The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) says after questions from RTL News that it has become clear that the large-scale delay of care has had a negative effect on the quality of care.
Extra money allocated
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that the number of referrals from GPs up to the end of August was over 800,000 times lower than normal. Now that the second wave has arrived, the ministry has announced that it is important that people who need care actually receive it.
In any case, the minister will allocate extra money to prevent healthcare from coming to a standstill again.
–
–
Professor: bigger problem
RTL Nieuws has presented the files of Wicher and Feetje to emeritus professor of patient safety Jan Klein. “They are both very dramatic cases, with the corona measures leading to death.”
According to Klein, these two examples do not stand alone. “They face a bigger problem. They both illustrate that during the crisis it was policy to speak to people remotely in the first instance, over the telephone and only then to see them. It must be the case that in other practices too acute problems have come. “
“It is important that healthcare providers learn from these examples. In addition, the threshold must be lowered for very specific groups of patients,” says Klein. He is referring, among other things, to vulnerable elderly and pregnant women.
–
–
