Health Archives - Page 2 of 53

Dutch cancer death rate is almost the highest in Europe

A higher percentage of the Dutch population die of cancer than in any other EU state apart from Slovenia, according to new research by the European statistics agency Eurostat. In 2015, 1.3 million people died from cancer in the European Union, which equated to more than one quarter of the total number of deaths. However, the share of the total number of deaths which were due to cancer in 2015 exceeded 30 % in the Netherlands and Slovenia, Eurostat said. Denmark and Ireland were third and fourth in the ranking. By contrast, less than one fifth of all deaths in Bulgaria and Romania were caused by cancer. Eurostat did not attempt to explain the differences in the cancer death rates or suggest why it is so high in the Netherlands. However, the Dutch integral cancer centre IKNL told website Nu.nl that the number of Dutch women dying of cancer is particularly high compared with other EU countries. Lung, colon and breast cancer are the most common cancers among women in the Netherlands. Smoking 'Compared with other EU countries, a lot of Dutch women started smoking in the 1970s and that explain the high lung cancer death rate,' a spokesman told Nu.nl. In addition, Dutch women have children at a relatively late age, which is also a risk factor in developing breast cancer. A spokesman for the KWF cancer charity said that the figures reflect the thorough way cancers are registered in the Netherlands. 'We know what sort of cancer someone has at an individual level. It is not like that in many EU countries,' the spokesman said. More >

The Hague's Bronovo hospital set to close

The Hague's Bronovo hospital, popular with both royals and the international community, is likely to close within a couple of years, local newspaper Den Haag Centraal reports. A confidential report on the Haagland Medisch Centrum, which runs three hospitals including the Bronovo, suggests that the closing of the hospital is unavoidable in order to shore up the group's finances, the paper states. HMC has declined to comment on the speculation, but Den Haag Centraal says the Bronovo will shut at the end of 2021 or in 2022. 'We are looking at the options to ensure affordable care in the future,' the HMC said in a statement. 'This week talks are being held between patients, staff, insurance companies, local councils and the ministry,' the organisation said. The results of the consultation process will be announced on January 24. More >

Dutch 'talk to' Novartis over cancer drug

Health minister Bruno Bruins is planning to talk to Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis this week about the five-fold hike in the price of a drug to treat a rare form of cancer. Bruins told a television talk show on Wednesday evening that the decision to put up the price of a year's supply to €90,000 is an 'example of how not to behave'. 'These are outrageous sums,' Bruins said. 'And I am not done with this yet.' The drug, lutetium-octreotaat, was developed in the mid 1980s by researchers at Rotterdam's Erasmus Medical Centre but the company which makes it is now owned by Novartis following a string of takeovers. Novartis then registered the drug as an orphan treatment with the European patent office, according to research by Dutch medical journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde. Bruins told the Jinek talk show that the EU rules on orphan drugs are meant to stimulate the development of new medicines and says he plans to raise this abuse of the system within Europe. 'This expensive medicine is covered in the basic health insurance package so patients will continue to be treated,' he said. 'But we are having to deal with so many other really expensive drugs that we really do have to tackle this.' Several Dutch hospitals make their own version of lutetium-octreotaat at a cost of some €4,000 per drip. A full treatment session comprises four drips. Apple chief Steve Jobs was among the patients who were treated using the medicine in Rotterdam. Meeting A spokeswoman for Novartis told DutchNews.nl that the company is 'willing to discusses this topic with all stakeholders including the government'. The company said the until its approval by the European Medicines Agency, the drug, formally known as Lutathera, 'was only available as an experimental treatment at centers with the facilities and capabilities to manage the compounding of a radioactive product.' The drug has now undergone major clinical trials and is available as a targeted therapy to patients in Europe and the US, Novartis said. After its approval in 2018, 'the price of Lutathera was carefully considered and based on the relative benefit it provides to patients', the company said. Price Last year, the Dutch healthcare institute Zorginstituut Nederland said insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at the price And in November, Amsterdam's AMC teaching hospital was given the green light by health ministry inspectors to make its own version of a licenced drug to treat a rare metabolic disorder. The hospital began making its own version of the drug after manufacturer Leadiant ramped up the price by around 500% to €200,000 per patient per year. The drug has been available since the 1970s but Leadiant only registered it as an orphan medicine with the European medicines agency in 2017. Orphan status, given to drugs which are used to treat very specific and rare illnesses, means a drug cannot be copied commercially for a 10-year period. More >

Hospital secrecy campaigner dies

Adrienne Cullen, the Irish woman who campaigned for transparency in hospital care after she was left with terminal cervical cancer thanks to a Dutch medical error has died at the age of 58. Her husband Peter Cluskey issued a statement on Twitter saying that his wife had been 'appallingly treated' and that this had made her a 'formidable warrior'. @AdrienneCullen died at the Netherlands Cancer Institute @hetAVL at 10.15 am today. To those who have been so loyal and generous - particularly @UCC and @osheaucc for her honorary doctorate - a million thanks. She was appallingly treated +and it made her a formidable warrior. RIP pic.twitter.com/Fv0vKiMtMI — Peter Cluskey (@petercluskey) December 31, 2018 Adrienne first underwent tests in the Netherlands in 2011 but it was not until two years later that a review of old pathology results showed that she had cancer. By 2015 her cancer had spread and, because of the delays, was classed terminal. She was offered €500,000 compensation by Utrecht's UMCU teaching hospital on condition she sign a gagging order, which she refused to do, and began campaigning for more transparency about medical errors. The hospital eventually settled with Adrienne and her husband for €545,000, the highest medical negligence award ever made in the Netherlands. Lecture In April this year, she was able to give a lecture at the hospital calling for the victims of medical errors to be heard, alongside the doctor responsible for her misdiagnosis. An Adrienne Cullen lecture is now part of the university calendar. Early in December she was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Cork. Her book about her experiences ‘Deny, Dismiss, Dehumanize : What Happened When I went to Hospital’ will be published shortly. Adrienne's impact was such in the Netherlands that public broadcaster NOS and the NRC newspaper are among the media outlets to carry an obituary. 'Staying silent was not an Option for Adrienne Cullen' 1960-2018 NRC obituary by Frederiek Weeda:https://t.co/Nq7dulOvbE — Peter Cluskey (@petercluskey) December 31, 2018 Watch an interview with Adrienne earlier this year More >

Minister presses on with digital files

Health minister Bruno Bruins is planning to force health care institutions to exchange information about their patients digitally in an effort to speed up the transfer of information and reduce medical errors. Patients will also be able to see their own records and 'manage' them, Bruins said in a briefing to MPs. 'If the electronic exchange of healthcare information is properly organised, avoidable mistakes can be prevented and care givers will have more time for patients,' he said. said. 'It is also in the interests of patient safety that digital becomes the new standard.' Hospitals, family practitioners and healthcare professionals all have their own systems and these have to be adapted to work together, Bruins said. This is currently being done on a voluntary basis but it taking too long, hence the need for legislation. He has set aside €400m to kickstart the process and plans to publish detailed plans to tackle the problem by April next year. Privacy The privacy of medical records has been a major theme in recent years. The government is currently expected to withdraw a bill that would have allowed health insurers to share patients’ details without their prior consent in an attempt to stamp out fraud. The bill faced defeat in the Senate because of concerns that the move would breach patient confidentiality. In 2011 the upper house of parliament pulled the plug on a €300m project to introduce such a system due to privacy concerns. More >

Health council backs more vaccinations

The Dutch health council said on Wednesday that it backs vaccinating all 14 month old babies and all 14-year-olds against meningococcal types C and W and has urged the government to add the injections to the national vaccination programme. Babies of 14 months are already given the vaccination as standard but teenagers are being offered a one off injection in 2018 and 2019. The health council now says that should happen every year. However, it does not recommend vaccinations against meningococcal type B because of the side effects which can include high temperatures, and a lack of clarity about its effectiveness. Meningococcal W claimed 18 lives in the Netherlands the first eight months of 2018, three times as many as the equivalent period last year. The infection most commonly occurs in the 15 to 19 age group and is spread by coughing and sneezing. The virus can live in the nasal passages without causing infection, but if it enters the bloodstream or nervous system it can trigger symptoms similar to gastric flu such as high temperatures, vomiting and diarrhoea. On Tuesday, the health council said babies need only be vaccinated twice against whooping cough, if their mothers were vaccinated against the disease during their pregnancy. More >

Compulsory patient data sharing dropped

The government is expected to withdraw a bill that would have allowed health insurers to share patients' details without their prior consent in an attempt to stamp out fraud. The measure was designed to reduce the potential for fraud in cases where people receive treatment from companies that have no contract with their insurer. The costs for this treatment have to be reclaimed afterwards, but insurers had no way of checking that the correct rates had been charged. Edith Schippers, health minister in the previous cabinet, drafted a bill that would have required care providers to share patients' details and information about the diagnosis with their insurer so they could assess if the treatment had been properly costed. However, the bill faced defeat in the Senate after the Labour party (PvdA), which supported the move while it was in government, changed its stance when it went into opposition. Senators are concerned that the move would breach patient confidentiality because clients would only be told afterwards that their information had been shared with their insurer. They also said that the doctors assessing the claims were not sufficiently independent because they were working for the insurer. Insurance companies said €27 million was lost through fraud from non-contracted treatment in 2017, up by €8 million on the previous year. In recent years insurers have sought to reduce their liabilities and the cost to the consumer by limiting the range of care providers they have contracts with. More >

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