More medical and dentistry students advised, cabinet remains cautious

Almost one hundred additional dentistry students and around 350 additional medical students are needed, according to advice issued to the government. But this would be expensive, and the cabinet is not yet willing to commit.

Demand for healthcare in the Netherlands will continue to rise in the coming years, partly due to an ageing population and population growth. Healthcare programmes therefore need to train more people, according to the Capacity Body, which advises the cabinet on these matters.

In the coming years, an additional 96 students are needed for dentistry programmes and 346 additional students for medicine programmes. However, the cabinet appears hesitant, judging from its response to the advice.

The ministries of Health and Education must examine ‘to what extent it is possible to adopt these recommendations’. This would cost around 125 million euros, and the funding is not readily available.

The cabinet is immediately adopting other recommendations from the Capacity Body. For example, a structural 13.4 million euros is needed to train sufficient students for programmes in oral healthcare, advanced nursing practice and physician assistant studies.

Medical specialists

According to the Capacity Body, more medical specialists must also be trained, partly because many will retire in the coming years. Major shortages are expected especially in emergency medicine and neurology.

Minister Mirjam Sterk (Long-term Care) says she will provisionally adopt this recommendation as well, though she added a caveat. The coalition agreement states that spending on these specialist training programmes will actually be cut from 2029 onwards. She hopes to ‘have a clear picture by early 2027 of how these cuts can best be implemented’.