The full name of the project, ‘Improving Cross-Border Emergency Health Care’, which is being carried out as part of the Interreg Deutschland-Nederland funding programme, clearly describes its core objective: structured cross-border cooperation in acute care and thus an improvement in cross-border health care.
Currently, the national border still poses an obstacle to acute care. For patients who require highly complex acute care, for example after a serious car accident, Radboudumc is often the nearest maximum care provider. However, cooperation is still often organised on an ad hoc basis. Good communication, without language barriers, and clear agreements are lacking in such moments, which can lead to dangerous delays and thus pose a threat to the patient. The lack of cooperation also puts a strain on the healthcare system on both sides of the border.
For this reason, Radboudumc and St. Antonius Hospital Kleve have joined forces and set themselves the goal of bringing about long-term, sustainable change in the Euregio Rhine-Waal region. The Interreg project ICEC was launched on 1 November 2025. Since then, St. Antonius Hospital Kleve, Radboudumc Nijmegen, Euregio Rhine-Waal and AOK Rheinland/Hamburg have been working closely together in the core consortium group, and the lead partners are looking forward to improving acute care together with the district of Kleve. On 22 January 2026, this collaboration and the start of the project were once again officially celebrated with a kick-off event! With the help of various working formats (talks, discussions and even LEGO bricks for visualisation), those present were able to get to know each other better and exchange ideas about common goals and next steps, so that nothing stands in the way of partnership-based cooperation.
The ICEC project is being carried out as part of the Interreg VI programme Germany-Netherlands and is co-financed with €721,710.65 by the European Union, MWIKE NRW and the Province of Gelderland. Together with the contribution from the project partners, a total amount of €1,001,700.27 has been made available.
Translated with DeepL
