Nijmegen hospital placed pacemakers with no cardiologists present: report

Patients at the Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ) in Nijmegen had pacemakers placed without cardiologists being present as the “first surgeon,” De Gelderlander reports from a confidential report based on which the hospital suddenly replaced the management of the cardiology department with two people from outside last week.

The drastic measure followed an investigation by the Dutch Society of Cardiology (NVVC). According to the hospital board, the investigation showed that the cardiologists were more concerned about their own businesses than with patients’ interests. Patients waited “extremely long” for appointments and diagnoses, and many emergencies had to be diverted to other hospitals.

De Gelderlander gained access to the NVVC report. According to the newspaper, the NVVC also criticized the quality of care. Researchers spoke to several people involved who mentioned placing pacemakers in patients without the cardiologists being involved as the “first surgeon” - the main person responsible. Typically, a cardiologist would perform this surgery.

Patients also often had to wait long or in vain for check-up appointments and little to no information was shared with patients’ house doctors.

The researchers also raised concerns about the culture in the department and the cardiologists’ behavior, calling them “transgressive,” “blunt,” and “hostile.” There was a “culture of fear” in the department and the cardiologists of the partnership that managed the department “acted only according to a culture of intimidation and are money driven,” the report stated.

According to De Gelderlander, the involved partnership engaged two lawyers from a large international firm, who had the report reviewed by Michiel de Vries, an administrative expert at Radboud University who has criticized dozens of integrity investigations in the past.

De Vries also called this investigation flawed, questioning almost all of the NVVC’s findings on the quality of the cardiologists’ work. According to him, the findings are lacking in substantiation. De Vries also pointed out that two previous reports, one by NVVC and one by the CWZ, assessed the quality of the department as good.

NVVC refused to comment to De Gelerlander. The CWZ told the newspaper that De Vries’ criticism was considered when deciding how to proceed with the cardiology department.