More support needed for overwhelmed medical workers, Inspectorate warns

More attention must be paid to the well-being of overwhelmed healthcare workers in hospitals, the Inspectorate for Health and Youth Care (IGJ) wrote in a letter to caretaker Medical Care Minister Tamara van Ark. A large number of medical caregivers have been experiencing “a widely shared feeling of failure” when they are unable to provide care to all their patients who need it, the inspectorate warned.

"It is therefore important that there is adequate follow-up and support for caregivers provided, especially when they are facing incidents while providing care or are confronted with aggression from patients and their loved ones," IGJ stated.

The situation was particularly difficult in the last weeks of April at the peak of the third wave of Covid-19 cases when a number of hospitals were forced to stop admitting patients due to their strained capacities. That’s why a decline in hospital admission seen in the last few days came to the great relief of overworked health care providers.

If the pressure on the hospitals were to increase even further, this could lead to 'an uncontrollable situation' in the short term, the inspectorate said. It argued that if hospitals lose more of their staff to burnout, illness, or resignation, hospitals will need to implement admissions stops with more frequency

Inspectorate noted it was “cautiously hopeful” with the most recent developments in the ongoing health crisis, like a decrease in the number of daily Covid-19 hospital admissions. “Still, the pressure remains very high and local peaks in the influx also occur, which mean that hospitals have to put in place temporary admission stops,” they said.

Hospitals will continue to face “major challenges” in the coming weeks to maintain their capacities, the inspectorate concluded.