On Thursday, around 60 hospitals across the Netherlands announced they were ready to assist the GGD and GPs with the national vaccination campaign, stating that they could perform as many as 500.000 jabs per week from the end of May.
A spokesperson for the National Acute Care Network (LNAZ) said hospitals would focus on vaccinating “young, healthy people” against COVID-19. “In principle, pricking can be done from the end of May, if all deliveries of the vaccines go through, of course," the spokesperson explained.
According to LNAZ, hospitals have sufficient staff to assist in the vaccination campaign: “Nurses or students, in particular, will inject, under the medical supervision of a doctor. It is not a complicated procedure." Hospitals won’t issue the invitations themselves - members of the public will receive a letter from the National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) when it is their turn to be vaccinated.
The Netherlands is expected to receive between 800.000 and 1,2 million doses per week over the coming weeks, most of which will come from Janssen and Pfizer / BioNTech. According to Health Minister Hugo de Jonge, 2,5 million vaccinations need to take place every week.
The GGD is currently able to carry out 1,5 million vaccinations per week, but in reality, an average of “only” 800.000 are taking place. Nevertheless, Thursday the GGD announced that it was scaling up its capacity from the end of the month.
The expected vaccine deliveries mean the GGD should be able to carry out two million vaccinations per week from the end of May. The Ministry of Health has said that, if there is enough stock to carry out more vaccinations, hospitals will step in to help.