staff shortage

The Euthanasia Expertise Center received a record number of 3,122 requests for help last year, an increase of 22 percent compared to 2018. "Every working day, 13 people come to us and say: Help me, I can't go on. The need is great," Steven Pleiter, director of the center, said to NOS.

Interns in healthcare are very often left to their own devices, instructed to care for patients without being carefully shown how to perform medical tasks, according to reports from around 2 thousand interns, students and care workers collected by union FNV. According to the union, the staff shortages in healthcare lead to interns being used as fully-trained healthcare workers, while they do not yet have the experience or training for this.

The number of young people picking studies in sectors facing major staff shortages is increasing, the Telegraaf reports based on figures from the association for universities of applied sciences Vereniging Hogescholen. The number of students studying to become teachers and nurses in particularly increased.

Waiting lists for specialist treatments at hospitals and clinics in the Netherlands are still on the rise. The average waiting times for most specialties were considerably higher last year than four years ago, and in almost all cases exceeded the applicable standards, the Telegraaf reports based on recent figures from Mediquest.

Hospitals and other care institutions in the Netherlands are spending more and more on temporary workers. Between 2015 and 2018, the costs involved in hiring temps increased by 49 percent, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands.

Police officers are struggling with a massive workload due to increasing duties and a growing staff shortage, police unions ACP, NPB, VMHP and ANPV warned at a press conference in The Hague on Thursday. They call on the Justice Minister, the police leadership, mayors, and the Public Prosecution Service to pick which crimes will get priority in the coming year, because the police "can't do everything", NOS reports.

The number of young doctors in the Netherlands struggling with burnout symptoms increased significantly over the past two years, according to a quickscan study by care providers' organization VvAA. Currently 20 percent of doctors under the age of 35 have burnout symptoms, compared to 13 percent two years ago, the Volkskrant reports.

At 20 percent with burnout symptoms, young doctors score far worse than the national average of 15 percent and their older colleagues at 11 percent. 

Employers should be extra alert to fake diplomas when hiring new employees, the council for secondary vocational education in the Netherlands MBO Raad warns. The council is receiving more and more signals of fake diplomas, especially from sectors facing staff shortages such as healthcare and installation technology, MBO Raad chairman Ton Heerts said in a statement.

A large part of the 30 thousand youth care workers in the Netherlands are striking on Monday, for the first time in Dutch history. They demand that the government provide solutions for problems caused by budget cuts and decentralization in the past years. Staff shortages lead to heavy workloads and waiting lists for children who need help, NU.nl reports.

The judges in family court are very concerned about the waiting lists for youth protection. Some families have to wait months for youth care workers to become available. Vulnerable children become the victims of staff shortages, the judges warned, RTL Nieuws reports.

Eastern Europe is flourishing, with falling unemployment and rising wages. While this is great news for countries like Romania and Poland, it is a blow to the Dutch business world. Especially for companies that are increasingly dependent on migrant workers, ABN Amro said in a new report on labor migration, RTL Nieuws reports.