Crowded hospitals and too few teachers at schools as flu epidemic hits the Netherlands

The annual flu epidemic has started in the Netherlands, the RIVM and Nivel said on Wednesday. And that is visible in the increasingly crowded hospitals and at schools where teachers are struggling to fill rosters and cover for sick colleagues.

The number of people going to the doctor with flu-like symptoms increased sharply in recent weeks. Official flu diagnoses also increased dramatically. The RS virus is also circulating in the country at the moment.

“Because of this combination, it is busier now than last year,” Esther Cornegé-Blokland, chairwoman of the Dutch Association for Clinical Geriatrics (NVKG), told NOS. “We are in a simmering crisis.” Elderly people are extra susceptible to both the flu and the RS virus. “We have shortages anyway - too few staff, too much demand - and with a peak like this, the bucket in elderly care quickly overflows. We can still help patients, but it is under pressure.”

Some hospitals are scaling down planned care to make sure there is enough capacity to care for incoming flu patients, Yara Basta, the chairwoman of the Dutch Association for Emergency Physicians, told the broadcaster. Various types of treatments are being postponed. “This concerns people who are receiving non-life-saving interventions, such as a new knee. But also think of interventions that require a stay in the ICU afterward.”

A few hospitals have opened special wards for flu patients. The Haaglanden MC in The Hague has room for 24 patients and the Haga Hospital in the same city has four beds available. The Isola hospitals in Zwolle and Meppel also reserved four beds each specifically for flu patients.

Schools are also facing staff shortages, so the flu epidemic is immediately noticeable in education. At the Sterrenschool primary school in Hilversum, for example, director Ivonne de Bondt has to substitute for sick teachers while she herself is also becoming ill. “Four of the 12 teachers are ill, so I have to substitute as a teacher for groups 5 and 6,” she told NOS. Many children are also sick at home. “38 children are ill at the moment. That is much more than normal.”