Sjaak de Gouw, GGD director of public health, acknowledges after questions from the NOS that even with the knowledge that one investigation would take eight hours, it has been decided to stick to the 3,200 FTEs. It was decided to let employees work more “net working hours”, he says.
To achieve this, holidays, leave, sick days, public holidays and efficient use of time should be eliminated for everyone. Employees would also have to work seven days and start working for weeks of 42 hours, more than the maximum permitted by the collective labor agreement. The new reality would last three months; then a new plan followed for the autumn.
The ministry said in a response that keeping GGD staff working continuously was only a “backup option” for the first two weeks of June. At the time, the expectation was that many people would report and not enough new staff had been trained yet. Ultimately, it turned out not to be necessary because far fewer people signed up for a test.
1500 searches is the maximum
The ministry also states that on 26 May, in consultation with the GGD, it was decided to reduce the number of maximum contact investigations per day. According to the ministry, a new calculation by the RIVM showed that not 8 percent but 5 percent should be the maximum. It follows that not 2400, but a maximum of 1500 contact inquiries are required.
For that lower number of contact inquiries, you need about 3,250 FTEs. “And with that, the number of FTEs required has remained virtually unchanged,” said the ministry.
–
