Quarter of emergency rooms in Netherlands inaccessible during extreme downpours

Almost a quarter of emergency rooms in the Netherlands become inaccessible during very heavy rain showers. Their access roads become impassable due to deep puddles or the hospital itself floods, according to research by Investico in collaboration with NU.nl, De Gelderlander, De Stentor, and De Groene Amsterdammer.

Using a detailed model by research agency Deltares, they concluded that at least 17 of the 77 Dutch hospitals that provide emergency care will have accessibility issues in the event of 70 millimeters of rain falling in two hours. Every location in the Netherlands experiences such a downpour approximately once every 100 years.

“This analysis provides a good initial picture of the risks,” Nanco Dolman, a hydrologist at Deltares said. The model takes account of height differences and rainwater drainage via the sewer system, among other things. According to Dolman, one hospital being inaccessible is already a reason to raise questions. Their model shows 17 blocked hospitals.

“These types of showers are occurring more frequently due to the changing climate in the Netherlands,” said Dorien Lugt, an expert on flooding at research agency HKV who calculated future precipitation scenarios with the KNMI. A shower that occurs once every 100 years sounds like a small risk “But such a shower falls much more often somewhere in the Netherlands,” she said. “We don’t know exactly how often, at least several times a year.”

Several hospitals have already suffered flooding due to heavy rainfall in recent years. The Emergency Department of the Slingeland Hospital in Doetinchem, for example, had to close to patients twice this year after heavy rainfall.

The researchers identified nine hospitals that become inaccessible to ambulances or cars during a heavy downpour. These are the Nij Smellinghe in Drachten, the Dijklander Hospital in Hoorn, the Gelre Hospital in Apeldoorn, the Medisch Spectrum Twente in Enschede, the Sligeland Hospital in Doetinchem, the Bravis Hospital in Roosendaal, the St. Jans Gasthuis in Weert, the Zuyderland Medisch Centrum in Sittard-Geleen, and the Zuyderland Medisch Centrum in Heerlen.

For another eight hospitals, only the emergency room can’t be reached. These are the Amsterdam UMC’s AMC location, the Onse Liewe Vrouwe Gasthuis’s location in Amsterdam Oost, the Alrijne Hospital in Leiden, Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht, the Sint Anthonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, the Albert Schweitzer in Dordrecht, the Rijnstate in Arnhem, and the Elkerliek in Helmond.

Many of the vulnerable hospitals are located in medium-sized cities in the east of the country, where response times are already longer.

“Of course, it poses risks if ambulances and patients can no longer reach the hospital and have to divert,” said Dennis Barten, an emergency physician at VieCuri Medical Center in Venlo who conducts research into how hospitals should deal with calamities. “There are situations where every minute counts.”

The Dutch Safety Board (OVV) announced last week that it would investigate the risks of flooding due to extreme rainfall. The OVV specifically mentioned the risk of flooding at emergency departments.