Children’s ombudswoman to Kuipers: reconsider closing children’s heart centers

Children’s ombudswoman Margrite Kalverboer has asked Health Minister Kuipers to reconsider the proposed closure of three of the five children’s heart centers in the Netherlands. She asks Kuipers in a letter to investigate the interests of all children who are faced with the closure of their children’s heart center. She refers here to Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Appropriate care available can only get better and not worse, says Kalverboer.

The Ombudsman for Children also cites an earlier report, which includes recommendations from children and young people about care. “The children in the study told us that it is essential for their well-being that the treatment fits into their entire lives. It is therefore in the interest of children that they can be in their own living environment as much as possible during their treatment. Certainly when it comes to long-term treatment,” writes Kalverboer.

‘Spreading is not decisive’

Kuipers’ predecessor De Jonge made a few weeks ago known that the academic hospitals in Groningen, Amsterdam and Leiden should stop with pediatric heart surgery. The care must be accommodated in the University Medical Center Utrecht and the ErasmusMC in Rotterdam. De Jonge opted for this because, according to him, surgeons can better keep their knowledge and skills for specialist operations up to date.

Kuipers, who is an advocate of large-scale and concentration in healthcare, endorsed this explanation in a letter to the House this week. “Every patient with a congenital heart defect should receive optimal care. It is clear that this cannot be guaranteed in four centers at five locations in the Netherlands,” Kuipers wrote. “However inconvenient it may be, the geographical spread is not of decisive importance in the concentration of this form of care, as the profession has also indicated to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.”

The proposed closure of pediatric heart surgery in Groningen has been particularly criticized. A petition to stop the closure is now more than 245,000 times signed. PvdA MPs Henk Nijboer and Attje Kuiken called it “crazy that the minister wants to close the pediatric heart surgery in the UMCG Groningen and concentrate everything in the Randstad.”

Legal action

In today’s letter, Kalverboer also asks for extra attention for the proposed closure of the heart center at UMC Groningen. This is deteriorating the availability of this specialist care for children in the northern and northeastern provinces, she says. “For them, this represents a setback in the realization of the right to the availability of appropriate care.”

Other hospitals also reacted disappointed to the planned closures. The Leiden University Medical Center, which has just new heart center opened, called the choice incomprehensible. LUMC chairman Douwe Biesma has said he is considering legal action.