This follows Health Minister Kuipers’ decision to concentrate children’s heart centers in Rotterdam and Groningen and to close those in Leiden and Utrecht. The LUMC treats around one third of all children and adults with congenital heart defects in the Netherlands.
To concentrate
There are only fourteen specialist pediatric heart surgeons in the Netherlands, spread across the country. Kuipers wants to centralize doctors by closing the two hospitals, in order to pool knowledge and thus growth in the other two locations. Douwe Biesma, chairman of the board of Leiden University Medical Center, believes there is no profit to be made from this. ‘We are all for some form of concentration. But you don’t see a concentration of just two heart centers anywhere else in the world.’
Right
Biesma thinks the judge will adopt a different position because the two centers will lead to an excess of concentration. ‘We also believe that the decision-making process was not accurate.’ According to Biesma, for example, it is not clear with what criteria the minister took this decision. “This is why we go to court,” says Biesma.
Cost
It will cost the LUMC a lot of money if the heart center is to disappear. ‘About two hundred million euros are spent on general cardiac surgery. On an annual basis, it is seventy million euros at the LUMC». To this will be added many costs, according to Biesma, so that the costs will be a multiple of this amount.
New care layout
Biesma is not afraid of the discussion on the new classification of assistance, “we agreed on this in the Agreement on comprehensive assistance”. But the way this happens gives rise to many feelings of uneasiness.