Headlines September
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Girl with Down syndrome missing after school transport blunder: “This should never have happened”
Transport company Willemsen de Koning made serious mistakes at the start of the school year. Two girls, who rely on school transport, were taken off a coach in IJsselstein and left to fend for themselves. Their parents spent around two hours in a state of panic. ‘No one could tell me where my daughter was.’ The transport company is deeply remorseful. ‘This should never have happened.’ What started as a normal school day ended in a strange adventure for 15-year-old Emma on Monday. The girl, who has Down syndrome and attends the Bij Sep Horses & Co care farm in IJsselstein three times a week, boarded the coach provided by Willemsen de Koning. However, she should have been in a taxi van after her school day at Stip in Utrecht. None of the carers noticed that Emma was in the wrong place. She was then dropped off somewhere in IJsselstein, on a different route from the coach. She then walked almost 4 kilometres to the care farm with another girl with an intellectual disability. It was a long way through the countryside. They asked for directions twice, says her mother Marjoleine Baas. ‘My daughter and the other girl managed to find their way remarkably well, but of course this should never happen.’
Gut feeling
In the Willemsen de Koning parent app, the mother could already see that something was wrong with the transport. She was listed as absent in the taxi bus. ‘I had a gut feeling and called all parties to ask: where is my child? But no one could tell me.’ An hour later, Willemsen de Koning called to say that the carers had told her that her daughter had been handed over. ‘But that couldn't be true, because I was at work.’ Does my daughter know where she's going and who she's with? Marjoleine wondered, trying to stay calm. ‘I didn't want to immediately jump to 26 scenarios, because it would end up being scenario 27,’ she told herself. Willemsen de Koning advised her to call the police and report Emma missing. Just as she was about to do so, the relieving phone call came. The care farm called to say that her daughter had just arrived. You don't want to think about what could have happened
Cindy Bunnik from the care farm
Between 3:50 and 5:50 p.m., the mother was in a state of great anxiety. She emphasises that she does not want to ‘pillory’ anyone. "But what I do want to know is whether the right staff are in place to supervise these children on the bus and how this can be prevented in the future. Can this group of young people be transported safely and adequately by coach? There is much more to it than just moving them from A to B. It has to be properly secured.‘ Her daughter Emma is doing reasonably well, by the way. ’She was cheerful at first, but now she is also quite shaken." Everyone at the care farm was also in turmoil, says owner Cindy Bunnik, who herself has a son with a disability. First there was concern, then relief and bewilderment. "The girls were proud that they had done it all by themselves, but you don't want to think about what could have happened. This is every parent's fear. Everyone is shaken up; it's really intense." Unfortunately, it was human error, whereby the agreed procedures were not followed properly.
Transport company Willemsen de Koning
Willems de Koning apologises to the parents and children. ‘Unfortunately, it was human error, whereby the agreed procedures were not followed properly.’
According to the company, the transfer went wrong due to a lack of checks and incorrect assumptions. For example, it was assumed that the parents and carers waiting at the bus stop in IJsselstein were with the girls. ‘The safe transfer to the parents is our responsibility. This should never have happened,’ says Willemsen de Koning. A mistake was also made that resulted in the children ending up on the coach instead of the taxi bus. "The school staff take the children to the vehicles. We cannot determine exactly how the children ended up on the coach. Our supervisors saw that the children were on the list on other days and assumed that this would also be the case on Monday afternoon. That was a mistake on our part. Someone who is not on the list should never be taken along without further ado. This should have been discussed with our planning department first. We have emphasised this once again to all our supervisors." The company says it has taken measures. All procedures have been ‘emphatically’ brought to the attention of both supervisors and drivers once again. ‘We will continue to do so and have also made agreements about this with the municipality concerned, which will monitor us in this regard.’
Relief
Especially at the start of the school year, things invariably go wrong with school transport, but Willemsen de Koning does not want to use that as an excuse. ‘There are always teething problems, but that is no excuse in this case, because the agreed procedures were not followed. What is part of the teething problems is that our supervisors are new and do not yet know all the children well.’ Willemsen de Koning is glad that everything turned out well. ‘We are incredibly relieved that the children eventually ended up at the right location and we would like to express our appreciation to them for managing to reach the care farm on their own.’
Source: www.rtvutrecht.nl
Licence revoked from largest au pair agency in the Netherlands
The largest au pair agency in the Netherlands is no longer allowed to bring au pairs from outside the EU to the Netherlands. Three months ago, an investigation by Nieuwsuur revealed abuses at Nina Care. At the time, the company was already under the supervision of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). Now, the regulator is revoking the au pair agency's licence. Previously, research by Nieuwsuur revealed that Nina Care did not screen au pairs properly and was unreachable in the event of emergencies. For example, if an au pair disappeared without notice. One family also reported identity fraud. In recent months, Nina Care has received further fines from the IND. There are now around fifty in total, amounting to a total of 110,000 euros. Over the past two years, the company has repeatedly violated the rules and has shown too little willingness or ability to improve the situation.
IND
After Nieuwsuur's initial publication about the abuses at the au pair agency, Nina Care submitted an improvement plan to the IND. In it, the agency promised, among other things, better screening of au pairs, better availability in emergencies and an additional reference check.
However, the IND was not convinced by the improvement plan: ‘The company has repeatedly violated the rules over the past two years and has shown little willingness or ability to improve the situation. We have no confidence that this will change,’ says Gerard Spierenburg, spokesperson for the IND.
Nina Care's response
Owners Lyla and Jasmijn Kok wrote in a response that they understand and even support the IND's decision. They also emphasise that they do business with integrity and transparency and say that they will guide all families and au pairs to a ‘successful conclusion’. There are currently hundreds of au pairs working on behalf of Nina Care in the Netherlands. The IND reports that au pairs who have been in the Netherlands for three months or less do not need to look for another agency. Au pairs who have more than three months left must find another au pair agency. The IND is organising special information meetings to inform au pairs about the consequences of Nina Care's licence being revoked. Host families will receive a letter.
Nina Care continues in the Netherlands
Although Nina Care is no longer a licence holder, founders Jasmijn and Lyla Kok are continuing with their business. From now on, Nina Care will focus entirely on au pairs from EU member states in the Netherlands. This is permitted: a licence is only required for au pairs from countries outside Europe, such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil. There is no supervision of au pairs from EU member states. Gerard Spierenburg of the IND: ‘It is simply a legal requirement that the IND does not supervise this. So it is up to other organisations to do so. The Labour Inspectorate, for example, could play a role in this.’ In response to questions from Nieuwsuur, the Labour Inspectorate says it supervises all companies. According to them, this is done on a risk-based basis or in response to complaints and reports. The Labour Inspectorate does not say what this means for Nina Care.
Abuses in the United Kingdom
Last week, Nieuwsuur reported that Nina Care sent au pairs to the United Kingdom without the required visa and instructed them to lie at the border. As a result, the au pairs got into trouble with the border police: several women were briefly detained and deported. This happened through a scheme that the agency itself calls “friends of the family”. Following the Nieuwsuur broadcast, Nina Care says it will now stop these practices.
Source: www.nos.nl
Largest legal cannabis grower in the Netherlands must limit odour, 'cannabis trial threatens to fail'
Legal cannabis grower CanAdelaar from Hellevoetsluis must reduce odour nuisance in the surrounding area. The preliminary relief judge has ruled that the company must comply with the additional rules imposed by the municipality of Voorne aan Zee within a week. ‘This cannot continue,’ the ruling states.
More than 2,000 complaints have been filed about the cannabis grower. In March, the municipality of Voorne aan Zee therefore introduced environmental regulations stipulating the maximum amount of odour the company is allowed to produce. If CanAdelaar failed to comply, it would face a fine of up to 3.5 million euros. CanAdelaar took the matter to court. The company said it would do everything in its power to tackle the odour nuisance. According to the grower's solicitor, the millions in fines amount to a “disguised closure”, Rijnmond reported earlier.
One week's time
The preliminary relief judge described the “odour situation” as very serious and doubted whether the measures taken by the grower would lead to improvement. Today's ruling states that the municipality's rules may therefore remain in force.
CanAdelaar has been given one week to put its affairs in order, either by taking measures to limit the odour nuisance or by halting production.
The director of CanAdelaar is confident that the requirements will be met. ‘We have been installing air filters since the beginning of the month,’ he told the NOS, ‘and more are on the way. I think we are on the right track to further reduce the nuisance.’
Open windows
The company started growing cannabis in Hellevoetsluis two years ago as part of the cannabis trial. It is the largest legal cannabis producer in the Netherlands. The grower is located in a greenhouse complex the size of seven football pitches. Tomatoes used to be grown there.
The odour nuisance occurs when the greenhouse windows are opened for ventilation. The smell of cannabis then spreads throughout the surrounding area. To date, the DCMR environmental agency has received 2,100 reports from 300 different local residents.
Research by the Municipal Health Service (GGD) has shown that the odour does not cause any harmful health effects. However, local residents may suffer from stress-related complaints such as headaches, nausea and dizziness. According to the Trimbos Institute, residents cannot get high from the smell of cannabis alone.
The cannabis experiment
In April, a trial was launched to test the regulated production and sale of cannabis. Ten legal growers are allowed to supply cannabis to selected coffee shops in ten test municipalities: Arnhem, Almere, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Voorne aan Zee and Zaanstad. In total, there are about eighty coffee shops. CanAdelaar is one of the ten companies that are allowed to legally grow and supply cannabis. The cannabis trial will last four years. If the grower in Hellevoetsluis stops, this could have consequences for the cannabis trial, says researcher and cannabis expert Nicole Maalsté. "Only seven growers have started production. CanAdelaar is a really important one. If it disappears, coffee shops will have to go back to the illegal circuit to get their supplies. Then you could say that the trial has failed."
The Ministries of Health and Justice, which are responsible for the trial, say that the current legal cannabis growers have sufficient production capacity to meet demand. If a company has to close, there is also a waiting list of growers who can be called in.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2581897-grootste-legale-wietteler-van-nederland-moet-stank-beperken-mislukking-wietproef-dreigt
Crisis website down after largest NL-Alert in region ever: Safety region “extremely displeased”
On Thursday morning, an alarm sounded from hundreds of thousands of smartphones in the region. However, the joint crisis website Brabant Alert, which was supposed to provide more information about the smell of gas in the region, was unavailable. 'We are extremely displeased about this.'
It was not the smell of gas itself that prompted the large-scale regional alarm, but the number of reports about it. On Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m., the emergency services received so many calls from people concerned about the gas cloud that the switchboard was in danger of becoming overloaded.
An NL-Alert was then sent out. ‘We have never before sent out an NL-Alert to such a large area at the same time,’ says Jos van den Akker, chief officer on duty at the fire brigade and spokesperson for the Safety Region.
The message referred to Brabant Alert, but that website proved to be inaccessible, just when it should have been working. The site is a collaboration between the police, fire brigade, Municipal Health Service (GGD), the province and the municipalities. ‘The site was set up because not all municipalities were able to quickly get an emergency page online in case of an emergency. That is why a joint website was chosen.’
The Safety Region says it is “extremely displeased” about the inaccessible site and says it is in talks with the supplier. It is believed to be a “software problem that activated a certain safety mode”. “The cause is known and adjustments have now been made, as we understand it,” Van den Akker responds.
'This was a tough field test'
'This was a tough field test and it did not work out as it should have. It is very unfortunate, but fortunately we have now discovered this,' said the spokesperson for the Safety Region. 'It is not the case that this created a dangerous situation. The site is only for information purposes. The NL-Alert worked and that is there for emergencies.' Due to the size of the gas cloud, alerts were sent to an area with hundreds of thousands of residents: from Bergeijk in the south of the region to Uden in the north, from Oirschot in the west to Helmond in the east, including Eindhoven.
'Waking people up for a smell?'
‘We are well aware that we are waking people up for a smell. We're not going to score points with that. So we only do that when the emergency centre can no longer handle the number of calls.’ And that is exactly what threatened to happen, according to Van den Akker, who cannot say how many people contacted the emergency services because they smelled something. ‘But that will certainly be investigated.’
According to the Safety Region, NL-Alert did what it was supposed to do: the number of calls received by the emergency centre dropped dramatically after the phones beeped.
Source: https://archive.ph/OJE79#selection-721.0-721.83
UMCG cancels heart surgery due to concerns about social safety
The University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) will not be performing heart surgery on people with congenital heart defects for the time being. An investigation is underway into the department that performs the operations, and until it is completed, patients will have to go to another hospital. Two employees had reported to the hospital that social safety and the quality of care were not up to standard in the department. ‘We take these reports seriously and are having them investigated carefully and independently,’ says chairman of the board Ate van der Zee. ‘Highly complex operations must be performed under the best possible conditions. At present, these conditions are not fully in place, which is why we have decided to temporarily suspend the planned operations.’
'Complicated and painful'
When asked about the nature of the allegations, Van der Zee is reluctant to say much. ‘It concerns the culture in a department, how people are involved in decisions and suchlike,’ is all he is willing to say. However, the hospital has announced that one of the four paediatric heart surgeons has recently left, although it is unclear why. According to Van der Zee, an experienced replacement has already been found. For patients, this means they will have to go to Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Acute care and outpatient treatments will still be provided in Groningen. Regular heart surgery for adults without congenital abnormalities will also continue as usual. Van der Zee calls it ‘a complicated and painful decision to make,’ but hopes that the investigation will improve care even further. He has no indications that patient care has suffered as a result of problems in the department.
Until 2026
The UMCG is hopeful that operations can resume early next year. The hospital performs approximately fifty of these operations per quarter. It is unclear how many people will be affected by the decision: some operations can be postponed without any problems, while others will have to be performed elsewhere. According to the UMCG, the issue is separate from the discussion about concentrating this specialist cardiac care. The government wanted to reduce the number of hospitals currently providing this care from four to two (Rotterdam and Groningen) so that surgeons could gain more experience. Doctors and patients from the hospitals that were dropped protested against this for years, and the court ultimately ruled in their favour. ‘In our opinion, the solution to guaranteeing the quality of paediatric cardiac care throughout the Netherlands lies in good cooperation,’ says Van der Zee. Groningen is already working together with the paediatric cardiac departments in Leiden and Utrecht to achieve this.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2582552-umcg-schrapt-operaties-hartafwijkingen-door-zorgen-om-sociale-veiligheid
Operations at Gouda hospital cancelled due to fruit flies
Operations at the Groene Hart Hospital in Gouda have been cancelled today due to fruit flies in the operating theatres. All non-urgent operations scheduled for today have been postponed.
This affects around forty operations. Patients have been informed. Of the eight operating theatres, two are for emergency operations, which will go ahead as planned. The source of the fruit flies is unknown and is being investigated. The hospital says it is taking various measures to combat the insects.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2583118-operaties-in-ziekenhuis-gouda-gaan-niet-door-vanwege-fruitvliegjes
Transport company Willemsen de Koning made serious mistakes at the start of the school year. Two girls, who rely on school transport, were taken off a coach in IJsselstein and left to fend for themselves. Their parents spent around two hours in a state of panic. ‘No one could tell me where my daughter was.’ The transport company is deeply remorseful. ‘This should never have happened.’ What started as a normal school day ended in a strange adventure for 15-year-old Emma on Monday. The girl, who has Down syndrome and attends the Bij Sep Horses & Co care farm in IJsselstein three times a week, boarded the coach provided by Willemsen de Koning. However, she should have been in a taxi van after her school day at Stip in Utrecht. None of the carers noticed that Emma was in the wrong place. She was then dropped off somewhere in IJsselstein, on a different route from the coach. She then walked almost 4 kilometres to the care farm with another girl with an intellectual disability. It was a long way through the countryside. They asked for directions twice, says her mother Marjoleine Baas. ‘My daughter and the other girl managed to find their way remarkably well, but of course this should never happen.’
Gut feeling
In the Willemsen de Koning parent app, the mother could already see that something was wrong with the transport. She was listed as absent in the taxi bus. ‘I had a gut feeling and called all parties to ask: where is my child? But no one could tell me.’ An hour later, Willemsen de Koning called to say that the carers had told her that her daughter had been handed over. ‘But that couldn't be true, because I was at work.’ Does my daughter know where she's going and who she's with? Marjoleine wondered, trying to stay calm. ‘I didn't want to immediately jump to 26 scenarios, because it would end up being scenario 27,’ she told herself. Willemsen de Koning advised her to call the police and report Emma missing. Just as she was about to do so, the relieving phone call came. The care farm called to say that her daughter had just arrived. You don't want to think about what could have happened
Cindy Bunnik from the care farm
Between 3:50 and 5:50 p.m., the mother was in a state of great anxiety. She emphasises that she does not want to ‘pillory’ anyone. "But what I do want to know is whether the right staff are in place to supervise these children on the bus and how this can be prevented in the future. Can this group of young people be transported safely and adequately by coach? There is much more to it than just moving them from A to B. It has to be properly secured.‘ Her daughter Emma is doing reasonably well, by the way. ’She was cheerful at first, but now she is also quite shaken." Everyone at the care farm was also in turmoil, says owner Cindy Bunnik, who herself has a son with a disability. First there was concern, then relief and bewilderment. "The girls were proud that they had done it all by themselves, but you don't want to think about what could have happened. This is every parent's fear. Everyone is shaken up; it's really intense." Unfortunately, it was human error, whereby the agreed procedures were not followed properly.
Transport company Willemsen de Koning
Willems de Koning apologises to the parents and children. ‘Unfortunately, it was human error, whereby the agreed procedures were not followed properly.’
According to the company, the transfer went wrong due to a lack of checks and incorrect assumptions. For example, it was assumed that the parents and carers waiting at the bus stop in IJsselstein were with the girls. ‘The safe transfer to the parents is our responsibility. This should never have happened,’ says Willemsen de Koning. A mistake was also made that resulted in the children ending up on the coach instead of the taxi bus. "The school staff take the children to the vehicles. We cannot determine exactly how the children ended up on the coach. Our supervisors saw that the children were on the list on other days and assumed that this would also be the case on Monday afternoon. That was a mistake on our part. Someone who is not on the list should never be taken along without further ado. This should have been discussed with our planning department first. We have emphasised this once again to all our supervisors." The company says it has taken measures. All procedures have been ‘emphatically’ brought to the attention of both supervisors and drivers once again. ‘We will continue to do so and have also made agreements about this with the municipality concerned, which will monitor us in this regard.’
Relief
Especially at the start of the school year, things invariably go wrong with school transport, but Willemsen de Koning does not want to use that as an excuse. ‘There are always teething problems, but that is no excuse in this case, because the agreed procedures were not followed. What is part of the teething problems is that our supervisors are new and do not yet know all the children well.’ Willemsen de Koning is glad that everything turned out well. ‘We are incredibly relieved that the children eventually ended up at the right location and we would like to express our appreciation to them for managing to reach the care farm on their own.’
Source: www.rtvutrecht.nl
Licence revoked from largest au pair agency in the Netherlands
The largest au pair agency in the Netherlands is no longer allowed to bring au pairs from outside the EU to the Netherlands. Three months ago, an investigation by Nieuwsuur revealed abuses at Nina Care. At the time, the company was already under the supervision of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). Now, the regulator is revoking the au pair agency's licence. Previously, research by Nieuwsuur revealed that Nina Care did not screen au pairs properly and was unreachable in the event of emergencies. For example, if an au pair disappeared without notice. One family also reported identity fraud. In recent months, Nina Care has received further fines from the IND. There are now around fifty in total, amounting to a total of 110,000 euros. Over the past two years, the company has repeatedly violated the rules and has shown too little willingness or ability to improve the situation.
IND
After Nieuwsuur's initial publication about the abuses at the au pair agency, Nina Care submitted an improvement plan to the IND. In it, the agency promised, among other things, better screening of au pairs, better availability in emergencies and an additional reference check.
However, the IND was not convinced by the improvement plan: ‘The company has repeatedly violated the rules over the past two years and has shown little willingness or ability to improve the situation. We have no confidence that this will change,’ says Gerard Spierenburg, spokesperson for the IND.
Nina Care's response
Owners Lyla and Jasmijn Kok wrote in a response that they understand and even support the IND's decision. They also emphasise that they do business with integrity and transparency and say that they will guide all families and au pairs to a ‘successful conclusion’. There are currently hundreds of au pairs working on behalf of Nina Care in the Netherlands. The IND reports that au pairs who have been in the Netherlands for three months or less do not need to look for another agency. Au pairs who have more than three months left must find another au pair agency. The IND is organising special information meetings to inform au pairs about the consequences of Nina Care's licence being revoked. Host families will receive a letter.
Nina Care continues in the Netherlands
Although Nina Care is no longer a licence holder, founders Jasmijn and Lyla Kok are continuing with their business. From now on, Nina Care will focus entirely on au pairs from EU member states in the Netherlands. This is permitted: a licence is only required for au pairs from countries outside Europe, such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil. There is no supervision of au pairs from EU member states. Gerard Spierenburg of the IND: ‘It is simply a legal requirement that the IND does not supervise this. So it is up to other organisations to do so. The Labour Inspectorate, for example, could play a role in this.’ In response to questions from Nieuwsuur, the Labour Inspectorate says it supervises all companies. According to them, this is done on a risk-based basis or in response to complaints and reports. The Labour Inspectorate does not say what this means for Nina Care.
Abuses in the United Kingdom
Last week, Nieuwsuur reported that Nina Care sent au pairs to the United Kingdom without the required visa and instructed them to lie at the border. As a result, the au pairs got into trouble with the border police: several women were briefly detained and deported. This happened through a scheme that the agency itself calls “friends of the family”. Following the Nieuwsuur broadcast, Nina Care says it will now stop these practices.
Source: www.nos.nl
Largest legal cannabis grower in the Netherlands must limit odour, 'cannabis trial threatens to fail'
Legal cannabis grower CanAdelaar from Hellevoetsluis must reduce odour nuisance in the surrounding area. The preliminary relief judge has ruled that the company must comply with the additional rules imposed by the municipality of Voorne aan Zee within a week. ‘This cannot continue,’ the ruling states.
More than 2,000 complaints have been filed about the cannabis grower. In March, the municipality of Voorne aan Zee therefore introduced environmental regulations stipulating the maximum amount of odour the company is allowed to produce. If CanAdelaar failed to comply, it would face a fine of up to 3.5 million euros. CanAdelaar took the matter to court. The company said it would do everything in its power to tackle the odour nuisance. According to the grower's solicitor, the millions in fines amount to a “disguised closure”, Rijnmond reported earlier.
One week's time
The preliminary relief judge described the “odour situation” as very serious and doubted whether the measures taken by the grower would lead to improvement. Today's ruling states that the municipality's rules may therefore remain in force.
CanAdelaar has been given one week to put its affairs in order, either by taking measures to limit the odour nuisance or by halting production.
The director of CanAdelaar is confident that the requirements will be met. ‘We have been installing air filters since the beginning of the month,’ he told the NOS, ‘and more are on the way. I think we are on the right track to further reduce the nuisance.’
Open windows
The company started growing cannabis in Hellevoetsluis two years ago as part of the cannabis trial. It is the largest legal cannabis producer in the Netherlands. The grower is located in a greenhouse complex the size of seven football pitches. Tomatoes used to be grown there.
The odour nuisance occurs when the greenhouse windows are opened for ventilation. The smell of cannabis then spreads throughout the surrounding area. To date, the DCMR environmental agency has received 2,100 reports from 300 different local residents.
Research by the Municipal Health Service (GGD) has shown that the odour does not cause any harmful health effects. However, local residents may suffer from stress-related complaints such as headaches, nausea and dizziness. According to the Trimbos Institute, residents cannot get high from the smell of cannabis alone.
The cannabis experiment
In April, a trial was launched to test the regulated production and sale of cannabis. Ten legal growers are allowed to supply cannabis to selected coffee shops in ten test municipalities: Arnhem, Almere, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Voorne aan Zee and Zaanstad. In total, there are about eighty coffee shops. CanAdelaar is one of the ten companies that are allowed to legally grow and supply cannabis. The cannabis trial will last four years. If the grower in Hellevoetsluis stops, this could have consequences for the cannabis trial, says researcher and cannabis expert Nicole Maalsté. "Only seven growers have started production. CanAdelaar is a really important one. If it disappears, coffee shops will have to go back to the illegal circuit to get their supplies. Then you could say that the trial has failed."
The Ministries of Health and Justice, which are responsible for the trial, say that the current legal cannabis growers have sufficient production capacity to meet demand. If a company has to close, there is also a waiting list of growers who can be called in.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2581897-grootste-legale-wietteler-van-nederland-moet-stank-beperken-mislukking-wietproef-dreigt
Crisis website down after largest NL-Alert in region ever: Safety region “extremely displeased”
On Thursday morning, an alarm sounded from hundreds of thousands of smartphones in the region. However, the joint crisis website Brabant Alert, which was supposed to provide more information about the smell of gas in the region, was unavailable. 'We are extremely displeased about this.'
It was not the smell of gas itself that prompted the large-scale regional alarm, but the number of reports about it. On Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m., the emergency services received so many calls from people concerned about the gas cloud that the switchboard was in danger of becoming overloaded.
An NL-Alert was then sent out. ‘We have never before sent out an NL-Alert to such a large area at the same time,’ says Jos van den Akker, chief officer on duty at the fire brigade and spokesperson for the Safety Region.
The message referred to Brabant Alert, but that website proved to be inaccessible, just when it should have been working. The site is a collaboration between the police, fire brigade, Municipal Health Service (GGD), the province and the municipalities. ‘The site was set up because not all municipalities were able to quickly get an emergency page online in case of an emergency. That is why a joint website was chosen.’
The Safety Region says it is “extremely displeased” about the inaccessible site and says it is in talks with the supplier. It is believed to be a “software problem that activated a certain safety mode”. “The cause is known and adjustments have now been made, as we understand it,” Van den Akker responds.
'This was a tough field test'
'This was a tough field test and it did not work out as it should have. It is very unfortunate, but fortunately we have now discovered this,' said the spokesperson for the Safety Region. 'It is not the case that this created a dangerous situation. The site is only for information purposes. The NL-Alert worked and that is there for emergencies.' Due to the size of the gas cloud, alerts were sent to an area with hundreds of thousands of residents: from Bergeijk in the south of the region to Uden in the north, from Oirschot in the west to Helmond in the east, including Eindhoven.
'Waking people up for a smell?'
‘We are well aware that we are waking people up for a smell. We're not going to score points with that. So we only do that when the emergency centre can no longer handle the number of calls.’ And that is exactly what threatened to happen, according to Van den Akker, who cannot say how many people contacted the emergency services because they smelled something. ‘But that will certainly be investigated.’
According to the Safety Region, NL-Alert did what it was supposed to do: the number of calls received by the emergency centre dropped dramatically after the phones beeped.
Source: https://archive.ph/OJE79#selection-721.0-721.83
UMCG cancels heart surgery due to concerns about social safety
The University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) will not be performing heart surgery on people with congenital heart defects for the time being. An investigation is underway into the department that performs the operations, and until it is completed, patients will have to go to another hospital. Two employees had reported to the hospital that social safety and the quality of care were not up to standard in the department. ‘We take these reports seriously and are having them investigated carefully and independently,’ says chairman of the board Ate van der Zee. ‘Highly complex operations must be performed under the best possible conditions. At present, these conditions are not fully in place, which is why we have decided to temporarily suspend the planned operations.’
'Complicated and painful'
When asked about the nature of the allegations, Van der Zee is reluctant to say much. ‘It concerns the culture in a department, how people are involved in decisions and suchlike,’ is all he is willing to say. However, the hospital has announced that one of the four paediatric heart surgeons has recently left, although it is unclear why. According to Van der Zee, an experienced replacement has already been found. For patients, this means they will have to go to Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Acute care and outpatient treatments will still be provided in Groningen. Regular heart surgery for adults without congenital abnormalities will also continue as usual. Van der Zee calls it ‘a complicated and painful decision to make,’ but hopes that the investigation will improve care even further. He has no indications that patient care has suffered as a result of problems in the department.
Until 2026
The UMCG is hopeful that operations can resume early next year. The hospital performs approximately fifty of these operations per quarter. It is unclear how many people will be affected by the decision: some operations can be postponed without any problems, while others will have to be performed elsewhere. According to the UMCG, the issue is separate from the discussion about concentrating this specialist cardiac care. The government wanted to reduce the number of hospitals currently providing this care from four to two (Rotterdam and Groningen) so that surgeons could gain more experience. Doctors and patients from the hospitals that were dropped protested against this for years, and the court ultimately ruled in their favour. ‘In our opinion, the solution to guaranteeing the quality of paediatric cardiac care throughout the Netherlands lies in good cooperation,’ says Van der Zee. Groningen is already working together with the paediatric cardiac departments in Leiden and Utrecht to achieve this.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2582552-umcg-schrapt-operaties-hartafwijkingen-door-zorgen-om-sociale-veiligheid
Operations at Gouda hospital cancelled due to fruit flies
Operations at the Groene Hart Hospital in Gouda have been cancelled today due to fruit flies in the operating theatres. All non-urgent operations scheduled for today have been postponed.
This affects around forty operations. Patients have been informed. Of the eight operating theatres, two are for emergency operations, which will go ahead as planned. The source of the fruit flies is unknown and is being investigated. The hospital says it is taking various measures to combat the insects.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2583118-operaties-in-ziekenhuis-gouda-gaan-niet-door-vanwege-fruitvliegjes
Translated from Dutch to English with Google translate