Expansion of the Mobile Expert Team Long-Term Disorders of Consciousness (MET-LBS)
13 January 2023Since the 1990s, the Department of Primary Care has built up expertise in the field of long-term disorders of consciousness, which is unique in the Netherlands. Young people who do not seem to be fully conscious, or even not at all, after an acute brain injury: these are rare, but also very impactful cases. For a long time, these patients in the Netherlands did not receive appropriate care: 41% were underestimated in their level of consciousness and only patients under the age of 25 had access to specialist rehabilitation.
From left to right: Willemijn van Erp, Sanne Pulles, Det Heijnen
However, with the establishment of the Expertise Network for Serious Acquired Brain Injury after coma (EENnacoma) in 2016 by Dr Jan Lavrijsen, scientific and clinical developments gained momentum. Nowadays, all people with a long-term disorder of consciousness are eligible for specialist treatment, which can take up to 24 months and largely takes place in nursing homes. And almost all of those patients are first seen by a geriatric specialist: dr. Willemijn van Erp has been conducting consultations in hospitals throughout the Netherlands since 2019 to diagnose patients with a presumed long-term disorder of consciousness and to direct them to the specialized chain of EENnacoma. It is wonderful, of course, that expertise from long-term care comes in handy in the ICU and elsewhere in secondary care, but it is a logistical challenge on your own.
With the support of Accolade Zorg, PZC Dordrecht and WZH, Van Erp is therefore currently leading a pilot project that aims to bring the Mobile Expert Team Long-Term Consciousness Disorders (MET-LBS) into a sustainable place at ELG and thus within Radboudumc. The MET-LBS already consists of 3 people: Van Erp is reinforced by medical secretary Det Heijnen (right in the photo) and resident geriatric medicine Sanne Pulles (middle). If the project succeeds, ELG will offer direct patient care for the first time, at a national level right across the barriers in the healthcare landscape. Expertise where and when it is needed, for the benefit of the most vulnerable patients: that fits exactly with the ambitions of our department. Hopefully, it will be possible to overcome the necessary bureaucratic hurdles in the coming months, because the challenges lie mainly in that area.