Client Board and Childhood Advisory Board

Every hospital has a client council, including the Princess Máxima Center. The client council gives advice on everything that children and their families deal with. All members of the council are parents, brothers or sisters of a child with cancer, or have had cancer themselves. So they all have experience with childhood cancer.

Advice and consultation

The executive board asks the client council for advice on various topics, such as:

• the design of the hospital

• nutrition

• psychosocial support

• educational facilities (the hospital school)

• quality of care

• and many more.

For some subjects, the client council has the right of consent. This means that the executive board cannot ignore their advice. The law specifies which subjects fall under the right of advice and which under the right of consent. The client council can also provide unsolicited advice.

The council meets with the executive board six times a year. In addition, there are regular meetings with other hospital staff, the Children’s Advisory Council (KAR) and the Dutch Childhood Cancer Association (VVKN).

The Princess Máxima Center also has a Children’s Advisory Council, the KAR. After all, children are at the heart of everything we do. It’s important for us to understand what they feel, experience and need, so we can keep tailoring our care to what works best for them.

The KAR has ten members aged 10 to 18. They include children currently in treatment, children who have recovered, and brothers or sisters of patients.

The KAR provides both solicited and unsolicited advice on all kinds of topics,  from food and staff clothing to how care teams interact with children.

The executive board takes the council’s feedback, suggestions and concerns very seriously and acts on them.

Children can contact the KAR via kinderadviesraad@prinsesmaximacentrum.nl.