Hospitals are getting into trouble due to the rapid increase in the number of corona patients. So, sooner or later, it will most likely have to be scaled down. And we all know what that means. But instead of just being honest about it, Minister Tamara van Ark (Medical Care and Sports) prefers to set one up huge dick story on!
Instead of using the word ‘downscaling’ (because that sounds so negative) propaganda and marketing minister Van Ark prefers to talk about “ensuring that acute care and critical care that can be planned remains available”.
And instead of just acknowledging that scaling down means that not everyone can immediately get the help they need (and therefore people may die), she prefers to say that “the measures guarantee that patients in all regions in the Netherlands have access to have the same care, of equal quality. ” In reality, this simply means that those measures guarantee, in the worst case scenario, that everyone will be confronted with the same shortcomings when they knock at the hospital. That is the only logical conclusion.
You can also see that in the measures that have been agreed. For example, the LCSP determines how much capacity must be kept free for COVID patients, which means that other patients may soon be peeing next to the pot. And various healthcare providers and insurers will map out which healthcare is still available where (and therefore also which healthcare not more is available). The minister’s message then closes with this ‘reassuring’ message:
“The delivery of acute care for both COVID and non-COVID patients is not in question. The efforts of the Minister and all healthcare providers are aimed at ensuring that patients receive the best possible continue to receive care they need. ”
So if the hospitals soon overflow and the hospital staff are sick at home, so that the “best possible care” is limited to a box of painkillers at the most, then Van Ark will in any case keep her word. Well covered though! Oh, and the rest of the non-acute care-dependent Netherlands is simply unlucky, but that’s just a detail.
