A major investigation by health ministry inspectors has uncovered a jobs agency which employed over 60 care workers who had fake qualifications or no documents at all, RTL Nieuws reported at the weekend.

The agency, Samen-Zorgzaam in Utrecht, has provided temporary staff across the country to care institutions since 2018, including youth care and mental health care as well as care for the elderly. Some 15 freelancers who worked for the agency had fake papers while the rest had no healthcare diplomas.

It is the first time a healthcare jobs agency has been fully investigated. Several large care providers used the agency at a number of their locations and letters from inspectors seen by RTL showed that agency staff who lacked the right qualifications were working at some of them during the investigation.

Health law professor André den Exter blamed the care providers whose actions he called “reprehensible”. “Care providers are responsible for good care, that is their legal duty. It is very simple: the human resources department needs to do throough background checks in advance to see if people are qualified or not,” he told RTL.

Failing to do this or leaving it to an agency is putting patients’ safety and health at risk,” he said.

Health inspectors as well as the police have been airing their concern over an increase in fake diplomas for some time. Some agencies were found to have ties with organised crime, providing lucrative jobs in care to people involved in violent crime and the drugs trade, while some were connected with terrorist organisations.

Care providers do not fo enough to check worker’s credentials, leading to more incidents and serious calamities, inspectors said in a report.

Wim Vernes, the inspectorate’s head of detection and fines, said he has had reports of disabled people suffering burns because they were put in scalding baths, and of inexpertly inserted catheters.

There are currently hundreds of jobs agencies active in the care sector, receiving some €3 billion in government money a year. There is currently no supervising body to check the agencies, something police and the inspectorate have been calling for.

Complaints

The investigation into the agency in Utrecht was prompted by complaints to the inspectorate. It is not clear if any of the people under the care of the providers were hurt while looked after by the unqualified care workers.

While the 15 people who had fake diplomas will be prosecuted it is unclear what will happen to the 45 who had no diplomas at all.

There is no proof they have carried out actions they should no have, Den Exter  said. “They lied, but there they did not commit an offence and that puts paid to any prosecution,” he said.