Holland’s hospitals seem to be lurching from one disaster to the next. A few weeks ago we heard that two hospitals were so badly run that their operating theatres were kept open despite the fact that management knew they were not sterile.

Then came the story of incompetent doctors and nurses who can’t do simple maths to work out the correct doses of medicine. People were being put on drips with too little of the vital fluid they needed or were being given too much medicine.
And now we are being told by the health service inspectorate that doctors and nurses don’t always know how to operate medical equipment because they have not been trained properly. Or have forgotten how it works. Or are just plain sloppy.
It sounds like a Hollywood spoof movie – were it not for the fact that dozens of patients have died as a result of the last incompetence to be revealed and over a thousand more were put at risk of infection.
Is the spate of recent blunders a sign that things are getting worse in hospitals? Or does it reflect increased activity on the inspectorate’s part? It seems like it is the former.
Strong management is clearly lacking, a strange absence in the drive to make hospitals more efficient and business-like. Or maybe it is the result of the corporatisation of healthcare. Who knows? But next time you’re in hospital remember to take a calculator and ask to see the manual of the equipment being used.