Healthcare Inspectorate

Children in closed youth care institutions are still too often placed in solitary confinement, either in an isolation room or in their own room, according to the Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate. Closed youth care institutions agreed with the Ministry of Health to stop using solitary confinement by 2022, but the Inspectorate worries that they won't meet that deadline, the Volkskrant reports. 

The Netherlands will not ban breast implants with a rough surface amid concerns that they may increase the risk of a rare form of lymph node cancer. But the Dutch government will tighten the rules for the use of implants in breast reconstruction and breast enlargements in an effort to make sure that all women who have them are as safe as possible, Minister Bruno Bruins for Medical Care said in a letter to parliament.

The Dutch child care and protection board RvdK has insufficient insight into the safety of children who are waiting for an investigation, the Inspectorates for Justice and Security and for Healthcare and Youth said. At the end of January almost 2,800 children were on the RvdK's waiting list for an average of 30 days, while the standard is 10 days, NU.nl reports.

The RvdK intervenes in situations where a threat to a child seems acute. The board then takes measures to put the child in a safe situation.

There are major problems at prison hospital JCvSZ in Scheveningen. The medical disciplinary committee received multiple complaints, the hospital received internal warnings about hygiene, and prisoners have taken to writing letters about their treatment. "Of course we are all prisoners, but this is not human", one detainee wrote, De Gelderlander reports.

In open letters, five detainees in JCvSZ complain about poor medical supervision, receiving incorrect medication, black mold on the walls, and a lack of activities. "We are sometimes under lock and key for 23 hours a day."

The Healthcare Inspectorate warns that there is a counterfeit batch of Jakavi (15 miligrams) - a drug used against bone marrow cancer - in circulation in the Netherlands. The forgery was discovered by a wholesaler in Germany. "Some of the fakes probably also ended up with Dutch patients", the Inspectorate said, ANP reports.

According to the Inspectorate, it has been established that the box and blister are fakes. Whether the tablets themselves are also fake, is not yet clear. 

Two boys with behavioral problems managed to slip away during school hours to go swimming, because of insufficient supervision by the staff of a school and a youth care institution in Zetten in Gelderland, three inspectorates concluded after investigation. As a result, one of the boys drowned in the Rhine river in May last year, NOS reports.

15-year-old Brian N., the boy convicted of raping and murdering 14-year-old Romy Nieuwburg from Hoevelaken in June, was under treatment by mental health care institution De Waag because of a previous sexual offense at the time. Newspaper AD reports that the Dutch Youth and Healthcare Inspectorate launched an investigation.

A stabbing at an Emergis psychiatric care institution in Middelburg resulted in the death of a male patient on Saturday night. A female patient was arrested. Director Paul de Schipper called the incident "terrible" and said that it happened "completely out of the blue", RTL Nieuws reports.

Interpol intercepted over 25 million illegal and potentially dangerous medicines in an international operation involving 123 countries. In the Netherlands, customs officers seized 50 thousand illegal medicines, the Healthcare Inspectorate said in a press release, RTL Nieuws reports. 

The call centers for national emergency number 112 and Ambulance Amsterdam are not up to the task of handling a peak in callers, according to an investigation into the availability of these call centers during a massive power outage in Amsterdam and surrounds in January. This resulted in life-threateningly long waiting times, Het Parool reports.

The investigation was done by the Inspectorates for Healthcare and Security and Justice and the Telecom Agency. The investigators concluded that the availability of 112 falls short during great peaks and must improve. 

The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is launching an internal investigation following the death of one of its psychiatric patients in an explosion in Veendam on Wednesday morning. The 37-year-old man died when his apartment exploded. And while the cause of the explosion is yet to be confirmed, many believe the man caused it himself.