The dutch authorities want to reduce the size of the psychiatric hospitals because they consider hospitals of more than 500 beds as being too large, too expensive and because they want to build new ones of the smaller size of about 300 beds in regions where there is no psychiatric hospital. The authorities themselves warn on the other hand for the danger to reduce the psychiatric hospitals in favour of psychiatric wards of general hospitals and of other services of a comprehensive service outside the psychiatric hospitals. The author of this article warns for the danger of a decrease of the quality of psychiatric care by such a policy as there is no necessity of a drastically carry out such a policy at the cost of much money.