Column | A new minister coming out of the field, great

If a minister goes to work in the field after his departure for which he has already made a policy, we are all rightly indignant. A period of reflection has even been introduced to first sort out any conflicts of interest.

But curiously, we think the reverse is allowed. We are happy if we can recruit a minister who has already worked in the field. Finally an expert at the controls. Diplomat in Foreign Affairs, scientist in Education, Culture and Science and gastroenterologist in Public Health.

The current minister of the latter ministry, Ernst Kuipers (D66), is currently making far-reaching decisions about who is allowed to provide what care in the Netherlands, the only ideology being the dubious paradigm that centering care is always better . Pediatric cardiac surgery therefore disappears from Utrecht and Leiden and concentrates in Groningen (UMCG) and Rotterdam (ErasmusMC). The consequences for university hospitals and for patients are immense. And you wonder if the Minister would have taken the same decision if he had not been at the head of MC Erasmus, but of LUMC.

Or taking birth care in the region, traditionally a point of contention between medical specialists and midwives. In Zutphen, the delivery rooms will close for lack of children. The children of Zutphen will soon have Deventer or Apeldoorn as their birthplace. It also has far-reaching consequences, for more than just the gynecology department. Because children are often born at home in the Netherlands. This is the ultimate accessible care and an important achievement of Dutch women. But does the midwife still dare to do so, knowing that the nearest hospital is a long drive away? This home birth can only be safe if the support is excellent. And it will soon only be available in town. Not in the area. You would almost vote BBB.

Would Minister Kuipers have made the same decisions if he had not seen the world for a long time from the point of view of a medical specialist in Rotterdam? What if he had been a midwife before? Would he have made the same decisions if centering care as a surgeon on the periphery would have condemned him to practice the same monotonous operation until the end of time? What if Kuipers had been a doctor in a hospital where all complex and interesting cases were always picked up in ambulances instead of delivered?

“I understand that changes in the healthcare landscape stir up emotions,” the minister responds to the parliamentary questions of the leader of the PvdA party, Attje Kuiken. But there is a “standard established by law” and all decisions conform to this standard.

“I understand emotions.” This is the eternal answer D66. I understand the emotions, but here’s a standard, here’s the law, here’s a policy, here’s a fact.

Proclaiming facts is also the workhorse of Minister D66 Robbert Dijkgraaf (Science). A notice for its new independent science communication center was presented this week. Luckily, the quartermasters were able to significantly weaken Dijkgraaf’s Roaring Facts. The center will not send science, but rather connect organizations and stimulate dialogue with society. Independent communication, no commercialization of research results.

Yet it echoes: science is often misunderstood by society, it needs more explanation. Again typical D66: we need to explain it better.

The center would certainly have been a wonderful initiative if science were a toothless, cuddly institution spitting out nothing but neutral facts. But it’s not scientific. Science has power. Dijkgraaf has the power, RIVM has the power, Nitrogen professors have the power; from 2020 to 2022, the Netherlands was de facto governed by UNWTO scientists. And more and more often the Dutch are the subject of politics disguised as science, their objections are dismissed as emotion or labeled as misunderstanding. Of course, this can be solved by explaining everything better. Because of these shifts in power relations, your science should communicate less and control more. And this control, for example by journalists, becomes more difficult as the communication budget increases.

My proposal is to introduce a period of reflection before anyone becomes a minister.

Rosanne Hertzberger is a microbiologist.