UMCG in Groningen stopped pediatric heart surgery. Just like academic hospitals in Amsterdam and Leiden
The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), the Leiden University Medical Center and the Amsterdam Medical Center are stopping pediatric heart surgery.
This is what outgoing minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) writes in a letter to the House of Representatives.
180 surgeries on newborn babies
This care will only be possible in the University Medical Center Utrecht and the ErasmusMC in Rotterdam. Even the most complex operations for people with congenital heart defects are moving to these centers.
Annually, 180 operations are performed on newborn children. A ministry said could not say how many adults with congenital heart defects have to undergo the highly complex heart surgeries each year.
For less complex operations, patients cannot go to the University Medical Center Groningen, Leiden University Medical Center and the Amsterdam Medical Center.
Centering is necessary
By bringing the operations together in two locations, surgeons keep their knowledge and skills up to date for highly specialized operations. The ‘small staffing’ per hospital can also lead to excessive pressure on healthcare. That is why centering is necessary, says De Jonge.
The minister has no reason to believe that the current quality in the five centers is substandard. But according to De Jonge, this does not alter the fact that there are ‘bottlenecks for the quality and continuity of care in the near future’.
Patient associations and interest groups want to go a step further
Four patient associations and interest groups are pleased with the centralization of the complex heart operations. “The quality has to increase, then you have to center”, according to a statement foundation, Hartekind Foundation, Patients’ Association Congenital Heart Defects.
But the organizations are going further to establish and establish a national center of expertise. According to them, this is not a place to be like a hospital, but an overarching place to put research and research in one place.