Florien Kruse, Lisa van Tol, Cilla Vrinzen, Oemar van der Woerd,  Patrick Jeurissen

The full report is available here:

Key points:

• The Dutch nursing home sector was severely affected by the first coronavirus wave. Although the sector was better prepared for a new outbreak, the second wave has still hit hard. Where in the first wave there was a steep increase in cases and then a rapid decline, in the second wave the number of cases in the long-term care sector has plateaued and it is unclear how long this will continue before cases start falling.

• Protocols, personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing are more accessible than in the first wave.

• The government has not imposed a national nursing home visiting ban, unlike in the first wave. Instead, the government has decided to take a more flexible and regional approach. Nursing homes are given discretionary space to make visiting policies appropriate to their situation.

• Staff shortages, working pressure and staff wellbeing are still a great concern. However, unlike in the first wave, various policies aim to tackle this.

• In the Netherlands, nursing home residents are represented by client councils. However, nursing homes have not consistently included client councils in crisis management.

Florien Kruse, Cilla Vrinzen, Patrick Jeurissen (Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands). Oemar van der Woerd (Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Rotterdam, Netherlands) Lisa van Tol (Leiden University Medical Center), Leiden, Netherlands)