The Dutch branch of medical charity Doctors without Borders is offering foreign doctors and nurses who have been working with ebola patients a temporary stay in the Netherlands to ensure they are not infected.

The offer concerns medical staff who come from places where the medical provision needs improvement or who do not live close to a hospital. Dutch medical staff will be able to return home, a spokeswoman for Doctors without Borders told Dutch media on Tuesday.

The medical staff – a total of six at a time – will live at the Artsen zonder Grenzen complex in woods near the Veluwe national park for a three week period. The local mayor has informed residents about the plan.

The doctors and nurses will be ‘in principle healthy’ although it cannot be ruled out that they will become ill. ‘They will be able to go shopping and for walks. We will take their temperature twice a day,’ the spokeswoman said.

According to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation, over 5,100 people have so far died from ebola and 14,000 have been diagnosed with the disease.