Parliament shoots down Cabinet plan to slash €165 million from healthcare training

Coalition parties and the opposition told the Cabinet to drop their plan to make spending cutbacks in additional education and training for healthcare personnel. This way of saving 165 million euros was devised last week as a way to reduce cuts elsewhere in the education sector.

Health Minister Fleur Agema must look for another solution. The PVV politician must also be given the space to do so, it became clear during a parliamentary debate on Thursday, the last day before the winter recess in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament.

The four-party coalition, including the PVV, VVD, BBB and NSC has a majority in the Tweede Kamer, but not in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate. They were forced to find other ways to reduce spending when the broad cuts to the education sector lacked the necessary support.

Parties involved in the compromise deal said they were confused, because it was not clear that the measure would affect the training of nurses. NSC MP Daniëlle Jansen said that the cutbacks should only affect training medical specialists, the high earners in the Dutch healthcare system who will soon have to contribute more of their own money to their own development. But Jansen thinks “it was not the intention” that nurses would be affected.

The CDA - which, like the ChristenUnie, SGP and JA21, made the deal with the coalition - was also unaware that the savings would impact nurses. CDA member Harmen Krul said that this was not apparent from diagrams and tables, and that the explanation suddenly included a more broader definition of specialist medical care.

Agema herself also expressed that she was “surprised, shocked and very concerned” about this part of the cutbacks the day after the deal was closed. On Wednesday, during a protest by nurses at the Binnenhof complex of Parliament buildings, Agema already announced that she would try to avert cutback.

GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, and SP, who had nothing to do with the deal, are outraged by the turn of events. Even when it was clear that the deal would affect nurses, the parties involved agreed to the amendment, Wieke Paulusma (D66) told them.

SGP has now handed in a motion that makes it clear there can be no budget cuts when it comes to nurses. “We never wanted that, and, therefore, we will not be doing it. Many of them are already running on empty,” said SGP leader Chris Stoffer. He submitted the motion along with the CDA, CU, JA21, and D66. Voting on this motion will take place on Thursday.

The parties differ in their opinions on how Agema can find the imposed cutbacks elsewhere in its budget. D66 and CDA want the halving of the deductible to be reversed. But a lower deductible is something that is opposed by the largest government party, the PVV.