The Refaja hospital in Stadskanaal will close its emergency department on Monday (today) at 4PM
The closure is necessary to improve the care in hospitals in Emmen, Hoogeveen and Stadskanaal, all of which are part of the Treant care group, which is in the process of re-organising itself. A total of around 500 full-time jobs will disappear at the three hospitals.
Patients will only be able to go to the Refaja hospital for scheduled operations, outpatient appointments, examinations and blood tests. The emergency care department will be turned into a basic emergencies post, which will only be equipped to deal with non-life-threatening issues.
The emergency department at the Refaja was somewhat under-used, to the extent that doctors struggled to maintain their sharpness from lack of practice.
The Bethesda hospital in Hoogeveen will also have to do without emergency help. Patients who urgently need to go to a hospital a welcomed at Zwolle, Scheemda, Assen or Groningen. Extra ambulances are being put on to guarantee response times.
