The catch-up of hospital care seemed to be over last month, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) reports Friday. Earlier this year, due to the corona crisis, part of the care in hospitals and independent clinics came to a standstill, which required catching up.
The number of patient contacts and the number of treatments were back to the level of previous years in October, while it was busier than normal in September. Last month’s figures do not show that hospital care had been scaled down widely, the NZa reports.
The number of operations is back to normal, while in the summer there were more than usual. Only in cardiology was the number of operations in October even higher than in previous years. The NZa suspects that this is due to catching up on deferred care.
The focus of hospitals has shifted to more urgent care from the end of September, the authority says. “That is at the expense of non-urgent care.”
Most of the cancer care could proceed
Oncological care was also largely continued in October, despite the rising infection figures. “We see fewer patients in October than in September, but no less than in the same period in previous years.”
“More tumors were found in September and to a lesser extent in October than in the same months in previous years,” the authority further reports. The effect of the second wave on the number of diagnoses becomes clear in the figures for November, the organization expects.
The waiting times for mental health care have been stable for a long time “and especially for specialist mental health care still very long”, says the authority. “In response to the second wave of corona infections, we also see a slight decrease in the number of newly started processes from the end of September.”
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