The Pieter Baan centre in Utrecht, where hundreds of crime suspects have had psychiatric assessments, is to close because of the high cost of managing and maintaining the complex, Trouw reports on Friday, quoting unnamed sources.

In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified staff. This is one reason the waiting list stretched last year to 23 weeks, forcing the government to hire expensive interim workers, the paper said.
The centre’s work will be transferred to other secure psychiatric institutions, possibly in Almere, Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Details of when the clinic will close its doors have not yet been finalised.
The PBC, which takes its name from its first director when the clinic opened in 1949, has places for 32 suspects and carries out some 220 assessments a year.