Staff at the Scheper Hospital in Emmen hung up banners and posters inside the hospital on Wednesday protesting announced layoffs by Treant Healthcare Group.
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that dozens of health care professionals were informed on Tuesday that their positions would become redundant due to Treant’s plans to centralise regional care.
According to the board of the hospital, no one is being forced to leave their jobs, and any job losses will mostly come from staff members naturally moving on to other jobs or being transferred away from hospitals and relocated to care facilities.
The health care group announced last year that they would have to make 50,000 euros in cutbacks to cover recent loses. The board has stated that scrapping nearly 100 jobs is necessary to provide good, accessible and affordable care.
But the hospital staff themselves are expressing concern that the job losses would only cause care at their facilities to suffer: on Wednesday, banners were hung in the main hall of the hospital and the atrium, and posters were placed on the elevator doors calling for patient care and quality to come first and criticizing corporate policy.
Photo source: Wikipedia
