Majority of hospitals able to catch up on backlog by end of year

Roughly 60 percent of hospitals in the Netherlands expected to catch up on the backlog of operations that arose during the coronavirus pandemic, RTL Nieuws reported. The only condition is there will not be a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases.

“This is thanks to the effort and flexibility of all people in the healthcare sector,” Joep de Groot from the CZ health insurance told RTL Nieuws.

The Dutch Healthcare Authorities estimated that there remain between 170 thousand to 210 thousand surgeries to be completed which had to be postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.

Among healthcare centers, there have been considerable differences in the pace at which the hospitals are able to catch up in surgeries. While the Slingeland Hospital in Doetinchem, for example, has already nearly completely caught up on surgeries, the Erasmus MC still needs to start working on the waiting list.

There have also been differences between academic and non-academic hospitals. Academic hospitals usually perform more complex operations which require the patient to recover in the ICU.

For the most part, hospitals began working off the backlog after the summer vacation ended to give healthcare workers time to rest and recover from a long year.