Emergency medicine in the Netherlands

The Dutch health‐care system provides high‐quality inpatient care, but emergency care apart from trauma is poorly developed. A model for emergency medicine based on Anglo‐American and Australasian principles was introduced in 2000, and a national integrated training curriculum was introduced in 2007. There exist many impediments and opposition to the acceptance of emergency medicine as a defined discipline. Despite this emergency medicine became a recognized specialty this year (2009). The present paper gives an overview of the Dutch health‐care system and the history, current status, training and future development of emergency medicine in the Netherlands.