Dutch energy bills are set to go up and there's a plea for patient power in hospitals. Today's papers cover a range of stories, with researchers strolling round intensive care units, a challenging book breaking records and a musical about a high-class brothel.

Dutch to pay for climate change targets
Under the headline, "Consumer pays for sustainability", today's de Volkskrant tells us our energy bills are set to rocket from 2012. The government is planning to make consumers cough up an extra 20 billion euros by 2020 in order to ensure that the Netherlands achieves its climate targets.

At the moment, the government pumps about 900 million euros a year into subsidies for windmills (most of them at sea), solar panels and hydro and bio-power. The economic affairs ministry says this is not enough to achieve the target of having 20 percent of the country's power derived from sustainable sources by 2020.

The paper says Dutch consumers will have to come up with the estimated 20 billion-euro shortfall by that year. And this on top of their normal energy bills. It reckons the average household will be paying up to a couple of hundred euros extra per year from 2012.

Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven is reported to be about to present draft legislation to parliament to implement the measures. The paper says the government agreed in the spring that sustainable energy would be "financed in a freer and in a more robust way from a rise in electricity tariffs". However, it declines to offer an opinion as to whether the draft measures will get a bumpy ride through parliament.

Patient power is the key
Today's Trouw tackles the thorny issue of medical errors. Its lead story reports one surgeon's call for patients' representatives to serve on hospital boards. Professor Johan Lange is also pushing for patients to be given more responsibility in the treatment process.

This would help make Dutch health care a safe service which puts patients first. He complains that, as things stand, the health service does not do as well on safety as other risk sectors such as the petrochemical or aviation industries.

Professor Lange is one of 12 doctors who talk openly about their medical errors in a book called Never Again. One mistake happened during an exploratory operation in 1993 when a patient's hand was left permanently damaged. He admits that, at the time, he was over-confident and hadn't received enough training to perform the procedure.

Describing the gung-ho atmosphere regarding taking risks which prevailed in the hospital at the time, he says: "There was no counterbalance, you were actually encouraged. Then, you start riding a sort of wave. You only realise afterwards that you hadn't given it enough thought. I've learned my lesson and want to teach it to others."

On an inside page, Trouw provides us with some disturbing figures. One campaigner for the victims of medical errors quotes European Commission figures which show "an average of 20 people a day die and 20 are disabled as a result of medical mishaps".

Fancy a stroll around intensive care?
As if this wasn't enough, AD alarms us with the news that hospital security isn't what it should be. Researchers working for a Rotterdam security firm took unauthorised strolls round ten hospitals outside visiting hours. They were able to wander around the intensive care units and even managed to peruse patients' files in two of the institutions.

One security expert blames hospital staff, complaining that they "don't realise that they're also responsible for security". As well as the dangers of infection from unauthorised visitors, he also points out that "you don't want to get your things stolen while you're in hospital".

The Dutch Hospitals Association explains that it is not possible to make intensive care units more secure. "You've got to choose between good care and security. It's difficult if all the doors are locked and you want to move a patient to the operating theatre in a hurry," says a spokesperson.

Adultery is only allowed in fiction
This woman goes to the doctor (the title sounds like the opening of a joke) has sold over one million copies and has been made into a film. Nrc.next reports that it has done better in the Netherlands than any other Dutch novel and points out that most of its readers are women. The story describes the adventures of a man who manically seeks adulterous sex while his wife is dying of cancer. He is shown text messaging his mistress as his wife dies.

The paper poses the question why so many women see the book's protagonist as a hero while in real life they would totally disapprove of his behaviour. The answer appears to be that he is "so sweetly helpless, and so open and honest about his confused emotions".

The paper concludes that we have totally different standards in the world of books and films than in the real world. It asks whether this has relevance in debates such as that about pornography's influence on people's behaviour.

Yab Yum, the musical
Finally, De Telegraaf has news about another art work that some might find in poor taste. Amsterdam's infamous luxury sex club Yab Yum, which was closed down because of alleged links to the criminal underworld, is going to resurface as a musical.

The club's founder, Theo Heuft, is unapologetic about the new show: "It's an honour that there's going to be a musical about my life's work. That's what Yab Yum was. I mounted prostitution in a golden frame."

According to the producer, the musical will allow us "to enter a world of beautiful young women, of glamour and glitter." Underworld threats will apparently provide the exciting action. It could be that the prosecution authorities will be interested in the sources on which the show's content is based.