The House of Representatives has approved a plan to release €27 million for special treatment centres for people with long Covid.
After months of stalling on the issue, an amendment by Groningen MP Julian Bushoff (GroenLinks-PvdA) calling on the government to dedicate €27 million of the healthcare budget to Long Covid clinics was finally approved. A petition in support of Bushoff’s amendment has been signed more than 100,00 times.
According to Long Covid aid organisations, it is estimated that at least 450,000 people still have symptoms stemming from their COVID-19 infection, of which 90,000 are in a serious condition. They are unable to live their life as they did before.
These aid organisations say there is no place in the Netherlands where they can go for medical attention specific to their needs. On the other hand such services exist in Germany, a point that was highlighted on the Dutch TV program Kassa.
According to the drafters of the petition, general practitioners and specialists in the country can’t help because they’re not aware of the knowledge available. Because of this, an adequate treatment process isn’t possible. for many, this will mean drastic changes in going to school, work and people’s personal lives.
These Long Covid symptoms are chronic. Patients are too weak to leave their houses and can’t handle sensory stimulations. For many patients, this meant they lost their job and their social life. They often feel excluded from society because of this
The €27 million
It was uncertain if the parties VVD, BBB, and NSC would agree with the proposal, as in the past weeks they didn’t want to budge on the budget in order not to burden the negotiations between parties for a new coalition. However, they seem to have changed their mind and agreed during the vote.
This investment means that it will not only be the hospitals and health insurance companies that have to take care of these new types of health care, as former minister of health Ernst Kuipers said when he refused to fund the idea. Hospitals back then already said they could only improve the health care for Long Covid with a larger budget.
n X (formerly Twitter), Bushoff said “Amazing! Our amendment for post-Covid clinics and a better compensation rate for healthcare workers with post-Covid are adopted. My team and all the patients that have fought for this for years, thank you so much. We did this together!”
The Long Covid aid organisations and The Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) are very happy that parliament has agreed on the proposal. Diewke de Haen from PostcovidNL said to ANP “Finally there’s a better perspective for a big group of patients that can’t go anywhere as of now.”
