King's Day: Many emergency rooms ramping up for busiest day of the year

King’s Day, not New Year’s, is the busiest day of the year for many emergency rooms in the Netherlands. Hospitals in Arnhem, The Hague, and Utrecht, among others, have extra staff lined up to help intoxicated people who fell and got hurt or were found unconscious on the street, AD reports after surveying the hospitals.

In and around Utrecht, partying starts early on King’s Night, the night before King’s Day, emergency room doctor David Baden of the Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht told the newspaper. “The flea market starts at 6:00 p.m., and many people party all night long,” he said. “King’s Day is one of the busiest times of the year for us.” He mentioned alcohol and drug poisoning, broken bones, and head injuries.

Emergency rooms in The Hague are also busy every year. “A lot of people start drinking early, and some get into trouble because of it,” Wendy Schmidt of the MCH Westeinde told the newspaper. The crowds are bigger than on New Year’s Eve, though the pattern differs. “During New Year’s Eve, it is quiet for hours, and the peak starts at 1:00 a.m.,” Schmidt said. “On King’s Day, the injured are admitted much more spread out.”

The Hague hospital has extra staff on standby and expects around 200 extra patients on King’s Day. The sunny and warm weather will likely increase that number, Schmidt said. “Drinks and sun do not go well together. People dehydrate and lose their coordination more quickly.” Everyone who comes in after a fall is checked for brain damage. “If someone’s been drinking, it is difficult to determine. We let such a person stay in the hospital overnight.”

The Rijnstate hospital in Arnhem expects dozens of young people aged 15 to 25 in its emergency room on King’s Day. “Children and young people have difficulty sensing their limits and quickly overdo it,” doctor Douwe Rijpsma said.

Emergency rooms across the country are busier than usual on King’s Day, Yara Basta, chair of the Dutch Association of Emergency Physicians (NVSHA), told AD. “We see more crowds around the King’s Day festivities throughout the country. The crowds vary per city and also depend on the number of first aid posts on location.”

But King’s Day is not the busiest day of the year for all emergency rooms. In Den Bosch, for example, the day is typically pretty calm. “We just had carnival, which is our busiest time,” a spokesperson for the Jeroen Bosch hospital said to the newspaper. “You are the first person ever to ask about this.”