Commercial doctor’s group Co-Med facing possible fines for lack of care

Commercial GP chain Co-Med could be met with another financial blow. The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) is demanding that the affiliated practices are easily accessible and that the emergency care is well organized; otherwise, the GP chain will have to pay fines that could go up to 750,000 euros.

The inspectorate issued the last fine on June 18. According to the IGJ, this information could only be made public now due to “existing regulations.”

Co-Med closed all its practices a few days after the decision. In addition, the healthcare insurers have ended their cooperation with the chain. Creditors have filed for bankruptcy of the GP chain. The inspectorate is still looking into what effect this will have on the fines.

According to the inspectorate, Co-Med does not meet the criteria that a patient must have a medical specialist on the phone within 30 seconds of calling in the case of an emergency. Co-Med has also not arranged for a general practitioner to be able to reach a patient in need within 15 minutes.

This is not the first time the inspectorate has been involved with Co-Med. Last year, the IGJ gave the chain a so-called directive, an order that the practices had to be more accessible to people in need within a week. However, the preliminary relief judge reversed this.

Since February the directive is in effect anyway. Because the inspectorate has seen no improvement since then, the service is going a step further by issuing fines.

Co-Med arose a few years ago. The company bought practices throughout the country, especially from home practitioners who wanted to retire and did not have a successor. At their peak, they had more than ten practices in the country, in places like Amsterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Enschede, Zwolle, and Helmond, but also in smaller places like Oirschot, Anna Paulownia, and Breezand. According to critics, Co-Med was trying to earn as much money as possible.

For the time being, patients of Co-Med can go to Arene, an online general practitioner. At some branches, they can also visit a GP in the neighborhood. The healthcare insurers have arranged this as an emergency solution to prevent people from having no healthcare after Co-Med fell away.