Doctors circumvent coronavirus vaccination rules to help cancer patients

Dutch doctors have sometimes deliberately circumvented the vaccination rules in order to be able to vaccinate seriously ill cancer patients against the coronavirus. National newspaper de Volkskrant reports this after conversations with patients and doctors. According to the newspaper, patients are registered as healthcare personnel in some cases, so it is easier for them to get their injections. The newspaper also records stories of cancer patients who travel to Russia or Serbia to be vaccinated there.

Cancer patients are not prioritized for the vaccine, as it only takes into account the risk of dying from the coronavirus. "Other situations, such as people who only have a few years to live, are not included," says advocate Irene Dingemans of the Dutch Federation for Cancer Patient Organizations in the newspaper.

It is a very vulnerable group of people, says internist-oncologist John Haanen to de Volkskrant. He argues for giving GPs and hospitals the space to help this group of people.

Another way out are the pivot lists that the municipal health agencies (GGDs) are allowed to work with. With the help of such a reserve list, 'disstressing cases' are vaccinated with a vaccine that is left at the end of the day. The GGD Limburg-Noord is said to have vaccinated 250 vulnerable people.