Health

On Wednesday, November 20th, hospital staff across the Netherlands will do the hospital variant of a strike - refuse to perform any of their non-emergency duties. This is the first national strike by hospital workers ever in the Netherlands, unions FNV, FBZ, NU'91 and CNV said, NOS reports.

A D66 proposal to allow childcare organizations to refuse children who have not been vaccinated received support from a majority of Dutch parliamentarians. This is necessary "so you as parents can see where you can safely bring your child", D66 MP Rens Raemakers said, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Dutch government is establishing a fund next year where homeowners can borrow money to remove and replace their asbestos roof, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure announced. She hopes that the fund will tempt homeowners to deal with this health risk in the short term, NOS reports

A third of Dutch children live in a home that is unhealthy in some way, such as being too dark, too damp, too noisy or too cold, according to European figures collected by research agency RAND for Velux. This increases their chance of health problems like asthma, eczema and respiratory diseases, AD reports.

Teenagers in the Netherlands are dissatisfied with the sex education they receive at school, giving their sexual education classes an average score of 5.8, according to a study by Rutgers and Soa Aids Nederland. Dutch pupils would like more information about homosexuality and sexual diversity, as well as on how to treat each other in a relationship or during sex, the researchers found, Trouw reports.

Ketamine seems to be getting more popular as a party drug, according to new figures from the Trimbos Institute. Over the past six years, the number of people who went to a first aid post or hospital after using this drug recreationally increased five-fold, the institute said in its Drug Incidents Monitor, NOS reports.

Ketamine is an anesthetic that can cause hallucinations. The share of first-aid visits caused by ketamine use increased from 2.7 percent in 2009 to 8.2 percent in 2017.

At least 20 listeria infections caused by tainted meat over the past two years were connected to supplier Offerman. Of these patients, three people died and one woman had a miscarriage, public health institute RIVM said on Friday.

At least a few dozen Dutch people were forced to move due to the air quality around their home, according to a study by the Long Fonds. These involve people who became so sick from the air pollution in their environment, that it seriously affected the quality of their life, AD reports.

A large part of the Dutch population want people with an unhealthy lifestyle to pay more for their health insurance, according to a study by Statistics Netherlands. 52 percent of Dutch want smokers to have a higher premium for the basic health insurance package. So do 20 percent of smokers themselves, RTL Nieuws reports.

41 percent said that heavy drinkers should pay more for health insurance. 20 percent want the same for people who do not exercise enough. And a quarter of Dutch think that overweight people should have higher premiums. 

All smoking sections in Dutch restaurants, cafes and bars must close, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The ban on smoking sections in the Dutch hospitality industry takes effect immediately, though when enforcement will start, is not yet clear, NOS reports.

The Public Prosecutor filed cassation at the Supreme Court in the case of a nursing home doctor who was recently acquitted of murder for performing euthanasia on a woman with advanced dementia. There are legal questions the Prosecutor wants answered in this case, but it does not want to put the doctor through an appeal so is therefore going directly to the Supreme Court, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said in a statement.