For patients, the current reforms mainly mean less and slower accessible care: 95% of psychiatrists do not have short-term appointments available, almost 60% no longer accept new patients, and rapid availability among Dutch-speaking psychiatrists has fallen to 5.4% (compared to 16.5% in 2023). This increases the risk of worsening symptoms, crisis situations, and the need to resort to emergency care. For policymakers, the same figures make it clear that the bottleneck is not “overly long consultations,” but the lack of sufficient time and flexibility to organize complex care safely and efficiently, including consultations with general practitioners and other healthcare providers. Without room for appropriate consultation duration, reimbursed collaboration, and digital care, further outflow from outpatient psychiatry is threatening in 2026, with structurally longer waiting times and higher social costs as a predictable consequence.
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