Earlier this year, Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers decided to close the paediatric heart centre of UMC Utrecht and the Amsterdam-Leiden Center for Congenital Heart Diseases. UMC Utrecht is now taking legal action to prevent the closure. However, according to André den Exter, the legal case is unlikely to succeed, as he told AD.
On 20 December 2021, Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge decided that Erasmus MC and UMC Utrecht could continue to provide specialised paediatric cardiac care and that the centres in UMC Groningen and the Amsterdam-Leiden Center for Congenital Heart Defects should be closed. However, his successor Ernst Kuipers decided this year that the UMC Groningen centre will remain open, and the Utrecht centre will have to close.
Low chance of success
UMC Utrecht is very dissatisfied with this, and after Kuipers' final decision on 13 April 2023, the hospital brought a legal case to prevent the closure. According to Den Exter, this is a sensible move: "As an employer, you have to do everything you can to prevent such a decision, whether it is for patients or employees."
However, according to Den Exter, the case is unlikely to result in a different outcome: "The judge first examines whether all relevant parties have been involved, all centres have been heard, all patient organisations, professional associations, et cetera. As far as I know, this has been done, so I do not expect it to result in much. The judge could then review Kuipers' decision in detail, although it seems unlikely it will come to that."
Guarantee of care
If detailed research does occur, Utrecht will argue that without the centre, the care for seriously ill children can no longer be guaranteed. "I am afraid that argument will not hold up. The minister has substantiated why he made this decision, partly because having two children's heart centres in South Holland, instead of one in South Holland and one in Groningen, would hinder regional accessibility."
There are also concerns that the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam has no room for expansion. "The fear that it will now become very busy in Rotterdam is currently speculation. In addition, the children's heart center will not be closed overnight, and Kuipers has proposed a careful procedure, for which hospitals may be compensated. Plus: the parliament has agreed with the decision. That is also important," concludes Den Exter.
- Associate professor
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