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.