At the same time, there are other persistent concerns: disagreement with the government over funds, problems with construction projects, competition with other universities, and mixed reactions to new technology. It’s funny how things always go the same way. In fact, the ’60s was the only period when there were no cuts. Before that, the focus was always on what it costs.
She explains that the money was never added. But due to all technological advances, health care is expensive, so hospital administrators for centuries have been divided between the need to innovate and heal many people, and the government, which does not always have the money for this. Medical science can simply do so much, so we can help more and more people. While people sometimes have not been helped or cannot be helped during the Spanish flu, now we can and will put people on a ventilator and provide an IC bed.
Van Parcel worked as an editor at LUMC for seventeen years. In those years, she learned a lot about the hospital, and had been toying with the idea of writing a comprehensive history for some time, starting in the 19th century. Much has already been written about the period leading up to this – from 1575 to 1800, she says. University historian Willem Ottersber has already provided this overview, and there are countless books about Boerhaave. The next time is a completely different kind of history: when medical science exploded. There have been many technological advances, and specializations have emerged in the last 150 years.
She says that there are books on these disciplines. But these are all separate histories, often about professors who wrote about their field after they retired. I was able to get Leiden things out of that, and that also gave a good idea of how they saw Leiden’s position compared to other medical schools.
