On the 20th March 2014, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, his Excellency Eduard W. M. V. Hoeks, visited the Proton Therapy Center in Prague. An interesting fact is that his home country the Netherlands is planning four centres of this kind. His Excellency wishes to personally arrange meetings between physicians and physicists from both countries to discuss potential areas of cooperation.

With a population of 17 million and after a thorough analysis, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has concluded that proton therapy is suitable for about 9 thousand Dutch people each year. A study from the Dutch Health Care Insurance Board has predicted that about 3450 patients will be eligible for proton therapy each year. To start off slowly, the government has set a maximum of 2200 patients to be treated, with 400 allocated to the Maastricht site (which covers the smallest region) and 600 to the other three. Initially, the idea is for each centre to be able to treat all suitable diagnoses.

His Excellency, Ed.W.V.M. Hoeks stated: “Your facility is impressive. I have seen how an advanced technology can handle serious disease. Even in Holland, we have decided to build proton centres. That is the reason for my personal interest in this Czech-Dutch cooperation“, adding: “I think the Czech facility and its professionals are wonderful. It is great that your staff speak English and have a very humanistic approach to patients. I am proud that I could have visited this site and I believe this will be interesting and enriching for our specialists in Holland as well.“

Other links:

http://www.proton-cancer-treatment.com/media/news/from-ptc/dutch-ambassador-in-prague-your-proton-center-is-impressive/

https://www.facebook.com/AmbassadePraag