GGD: Cabinet's planned cuts threaten health and safety of citizens

The government's austerity plans mean that the Netherlands cannot be properly prepared for a new pandemic, endangering the health and safety of everyone, according to GGD GHOR Nederland.

"With a structural cut of 300 million euros on pandemic preparedness, the Netherlands will not be prepared for very serious, real health threats coming our way," says chairman André Rouvoet. "This is not only irresponsible but also inexplicable immediately after a pandemic that clearly showed that the Netherlands was not sufficiently prepared." Rouvoet compares the cut to "demolishing the dikes while the storm is coming."

The GGD expects that staff hired since the coronavirus will have to be sent away again. The organization warns that this will result in the loss of much knowledge and expertise and the inability to respond adequately to new infectious disease threats.

For example, the cutbacks will make it impossible to set up a so-called information provision system (IV), which, according to the GGD, is essential during a crisis and was missing during the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the GGD predicts that there will soon be no good information available regionally and nationally about infectious diseases.

The GGD emphasized on Sunday that a new pandemic will break out, and it is not a matter of if but when. "We are already reading in the newspapers about all kinds of threats such as bird flu, mpox, dengue, and measles outbreaks, and we will experience more virus outbreaks in the near future, with all the large-scale health risks that entails."