Like almost all of North Holland, the Dijklander Hospital also fears the road works on the A7 motorway in the coming period. The bridge over the Noordhollandsch Kanaal near Purmerend will be renovated from next Friday. As a result, only one side of the road will be available for all traffic for almost six months and many traffic jams are therefore expected.
Chairman of the Board Willem Wiegersma joined the meeting talk show ‘De Tafel van Knook’, from media partner Van Hoorn Zeggen, and expressed his great concern. “The impact on us as a hospital and on patient care is immense,” he said. “We cannot prevent it, but we try to see how we can guarantee the quality of care. This means, for example, that we try to admit patients a day earlier so that they can go to their operation in peace the next day.”
‘There is a risk’
All maternity care at the Dijklander Hospital is concentrated in Hoorn. If possible, heavily pregnant women are also taken to hospital earlier. “You don’t want to give birth on the A7, but that risk is there. Rijkswaterstaat has indicated that the extra travel time can be forty minutes to two hours, which is immense. If a heavily pregnant woman or an ambulance has to pass through, that doesn’t work. ”
Dijklander previously suggested constructing a temporary emergency bridge. “Technically it is possible, but the impact on CO2 is too great, we were told by Rijkswaterstaat. So that is not going to happen. Whether CO2 is more important than human lives? That is a decision that Rijkswaterstaat has made.”
