The healthcare sector has tens of thousands of vacancies. A survey among healthcare workers shows that this leads to dangerous situations.
RTL news loved a survey of 8,431 nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers. This showed that many health care workers suffer from the shortage of colleagues. The safety of care is at risk, the respondents fear. More than five hundred health care workers indicate that they have experienced a serious mistake with medicines.
Drug errors
The respondents have to work with people without the right qualifications. Or they see that there are no double checks to ensure that the correct medicines are administered. Dozens of employees who have been questioned even believe that patients have died due to the staff shortage.
What do you think – should the minister take action on this pressing problem?
Yes, the minister must take action
Almost all hospitals complain that they do not get vacancies filled. The workload among nurses and other employees is extremely high and absenteeism is high. If unqualified personnel are added, it will become really unsafe in healthcare. The minister must act now. For example, by making working in healthcare more attractive by making extra money available. Or by investing extra in preventing absenteeism due to illness.
No that is not necessary
As many as 1.2 million people work in healthcare. The fact that there are tens of thousands of vacancies is not as alarming as it may seem at first glance. In addition, the respondents who sounded the alarm at RTL news did not want their name in the media, afraid of consequences. So we don’t know exactly what’s going on yet. A new collective labor agreement is also on the table with agreements for a wage increase and a one-off payment. Of course the minister is concerned about the staff shortage, but what can he do?
Statement: ‘The minister must NOW do something about the staff shortage in healthcare’
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