Rotterdam city council says rules requiring it to put healthcare and child protection services out to European tender have saddled officials with major problems and risk tearing locally-based care teams apart.

Last year, parliament agreed that all local council contracts of more than €750,000 must be put out to European tender and Rotterdam’s care contracts total around €400m a year.

Now, for example, long-term relationships between doctors and patients in youth psychiatric services are being threatened by the changes, officials say. ‘You have to ask in whose interests this is,’ alderman Hugo de Jonge told the NRC.

Local knowledge is key to providing good, small-scale services and that means a close understanding of what makes Rotterdam tick, De Jonge said. ‘What is there here for a healthcare provider from another country. What is the cross border interest?’

Junior health minister Martin van Rijn has already pledged to look into the impact of the legislation on youth care services.