Administrative measures

Dutch law entitles the inspectorate to initiate or impose administrative measures. It will do so if care providers or manufacturers breach the established standards whereby patient safety is put at risk, or if they continue to ignore previous advice and encouragement.

The following administrative measures are available:

• Compliance order: the inspectorate can serve a health care provider or individual practitioner with a 'compliance order'. This may require the institution (or a department) to be closed or all care activities to be discontinued. The inspectorate's authority to issue a compliance order is derived from the Kwaliteitswet Zorginstellingen (Health Institutions Quality Act) and/or the Wet op de beroepen in de individuele gezondheidszorg (Individual Healthcare Professions Act).
• Referral to a higher authority: further to the Quality Act, the inspectorate may advise the Minister of Health to impose a formal 'instructive measure'. This may be deemed appropriate if, in the opinion of the inspectorate, changes to the way in which an institution operates are necessary.
• Provisional penalty: the inspectorate may request the Minister of Health to apply this measure to prompt a health care institution or individual practitioner to alter their conduct, whereby failure to do so will result in a financial penalty. This would be appropriate where a compliance order has been ignored, or if a care institution fails to maintain proper medical records.
• Administrative penalty: both the Quality Act and the Geneesmiddelenwet (Medicines Act) allow the Inspectorate to impose a fine on care institutions.
• Referral to a Disciplinary Council (College Medisch Toezicht, CMT); further to the Individual Healthcare Professions Act, the inspectorate may bring any practitioner before the relevant CMT (including practioners not mentioned explicitly in the Act). It will do so if the inspectorate considers that practitioner to be unfit to practise, perhaps due to illness or addiction problems.