Health Minister Ab Klink has announced he will close three centres for infant heart surgery, in accordance with recommendations published on Thursday by a government committee.

Of the six existing centres, those in Nijmegen, Utrecht and Amsterdam will close within the next few years.

The committee's advice says that a centre needs to perform at least 350 operations a year to maintain its quality standards. With six centres carrying out heart surgery on children, that number cannot be achieved. The committee recommended that the three best centres, at the universities of Leiden, Rotterdam and Groningen, should stay in business.