Police have warned that criminal gangs are infiltrating the Dutch healthcare system on a “massive scale” by using fake qualifications or setting up their own care agencies.

Criminals can buy degrees online, often from other gangsters who run fake qualification agencies, and use them to get jobs paying thousands of euros a month.

Others operate fraudulent care providers who provide low-quality services and inflate their income by submitting claims to insurance companies for care that is never provided.

The Midden-Nederland police department wrote: “Criminals earning €12,000 a month are the rule rather than the exception.” A report seen by RTL Nieuws.

“We’ve added about 100 dealers in the last four years,” a community police officer told the report’s authors. “I would estimate that 80 percent of these guys work in the healthcare industry or say they will.”

Police say gangs are particularly active in areas where supervision is low and there is a shortage of qualified personnel, such as night shifts and caring for the elderly and people with learning disabilities. They warn that the trend is lowering standards of care and leading to patients being neglected or abused.

“A teenager with learning disabilities was forced to stay naked in front of the window for hours,” police wrote. “Another was forced to display her private parts on a public street and lick the shoes of her so-called babysitter.”

No prosecution

Police also warned that criminals in the healthcare sector were exploiting their patients by involving them in activities such as drug dealing. They also use their jobs as an excuse, allowing them to run their criminal business while working for a supposedly fraudulent care provider.

The report states that a lack of control over qualifications and staff exacerbates the problem. Qualifications body DUO reported 100 cases of fraud to police in 2023, but not a single case resulted in an investigation.

Mariska Schutte, director of KansPlus, an organization for people with learning disabilities, called the statements “bizarre” and a “difficult reality.”

He called on politicians in The Hague to take action to protect vulnerable people. “If there is one example, there must be others we don’t know about. “Our customers are entitled to the extra protection and control they need.”

The police report said the government and healthcare providers needed to work together to combat the underworld’s influence on the care system.

“System flaws need to be fixed and barriers put in place to stop the undermining of the healthcare sector and eliminate the abuses that are emerging,” they wrote.