Second Covid wave putting care for chronically ill at risk

Internists are very concerned about the increasing number of coronavirus patients in hospital, and the effect this will have for the quality of care for chronically ill patients, the Dutch association of internists NIV said to ANP.

According to the NIV, about 80 percent of the currently hospitalized Covid-19 patients are being treated by internists. This means that consultation hours have to be shortened or scrapped at a number of hospitals, resulting in chronically ill patients not being able to see their internist.

"We are doing everything we can to help them, but if the Covid-19 infections do not recede quickly, we will soon no longer be able to guarantee the quality of care for both the Covid-19 patients and our regular patients," NIV chairman Robin Peeters said to the news wire. .

The association stressed that everyone in the Netherlands has to stick to the measures in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"We have learned a lot since the outbreak of the first wave, the treatment has improved, but together we are responsible to ensure that the enormous influx of the number of patients does not increase further," Peeters said. "This can only be done by continuing to comply to the government measures and realizing that the further tightening of these measures are necessary. A situation like the one in March, or worse, otherwise seems inevitable."