Hospitals in dire need for hundreds of nurses

Hospitals are struggling with acute shortages of care personnel. Nurses are dropping out in large numbers due to being infected with Covid-19 or because they are overworked. The AD reports this on Saturday. Extra staff is also challenging to find.

In recent days alone, hospitals have submitted 200 requests to Regioplus, who coordinates the national campaign ‘Extra Hands for Healthcare’. The campaign aims to get former staff back into hospitals and care homes as soon as possible.

The demand for health workers is at its peak. A specialist job site shows that currently, there are over 2,200 vacancies for nurses.

Due to the increasing numbers of hospital admissions and the current high level of absenteeism in hospitals, there is a fear of code black, when doctors have to decide which patient receives care over another.

Senior Service and Javees, an informal national organization that provides additional services to hospitals, made an emergency call to their more than 1,000 employees on Saturday. They asked them to give extra support to Dutch hospitals where possible.