Healthcare worker pledge will be 'very difficult' to meet: minister
Wednesday 16 March 2011
It will be 'very difficult' to meet the cabinet's pledge to boost the number of healthcare workers by 12,000 by 2015, health minister Edith Schippers told RTLZ news on Wednesday.
'There is no tin of nurses or carers that you can just open,' Schippers said. 'You have to train them.'
The commitment to employ 12,000 new care workers was made in the coalition agreement, largely at the behest of Geert Wilders' PVV.
Schippers also said the health ministry will overspend its budget this year by a 'considerable' amount. The minister declined to tell the news channel by how much but said the general public and healthcare institutions will have to deal with the results.
The new government's pledge to employ 3,000 new police officers - also a gesture to the PVV - has already been revealed to be an accounting trick.
© DutchNews.nl
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'There is no tin of nurses or carers that you can just open,' Schippers said.
By AC | 16 March 2011 4:31 PMOf course there is....they can be brought over from non-western countries. I am sure the PVV wouldn't mind to get some cheaper/immigrant nurses to meet their pledges? They will all qualify as kennismigrant as well.
the accident in Japan proves again that nuclear power plants are not save. Take in consideration that TEPCO and Hukorico Electric lied several times about other incidents in the past. Where are the times that the Dutch united against nuclear power,
By guido habets | 16 March 2011 5:44 PMIt may help if the nursing salaries are increased to be more in-line with the US. I just moved to The Netherlands from the US. I am a nurse anesthetist and I am employed in The Netherlands now. I took a slight pay decrease to come here which I am ok with, but if you want people to ork, they need more incentive!
By Kristina | 16 March 2011 6:49 PMSo why promise us these things if the government obviously knew beforehand that they could not make these things actually happen? Why lie directly to us as voters and citizens? Now these same people expect us to trust them and believe they can competently handle other issues and problems? I do not understand.
By Bill | 17 March 2011 6:38 AMWell, this is tricky. A job that would qualify as one, like IT, that requires professionals recruited from outside the Netherlands, or even the EU. But the language issue makes it almost impossible to recruit. Not to mention that foreign nursing qualifications aren't totally recognized here. Back to square one: training.
Or perhaps fast-track training for professionals here who can't practise because of language or the lack of other qualifications?
By CW | 17 March 2011 10:21 AMThanks for your contribution, Guido. I do agree.
What that has to do with a shortage of nurses in the Netherlands though I'm still trying to figure out...
By CW | 17 March 2011 3:49 PM