Introduced in 2012, 1733 (the call number for general practitioners on duty) plays a valuable role in the triage and referral of patients. It is linked to local on-call services and remains available for non-emergency medical assistance in Wallonia. If you need a doctor on call on weekday evenings and nights, it is indeed possible to dial the number in many regions. And eventually, the number should be accessible everywhere in Belgium.
“The function of this number is to triage patients and redirect vital emergencies to emergency services, explains Guy Delrée, president of the federation of associations of general practitioners in Wallonia. This is a real gain in quality and health. The doctor can travel if necessary or refer the patient to the attending physician. This is a project that is all the more important in areas with a low population density of general practitioners”.
Doctors denounce a lack of consultation
This general practice on-call system for weekends and weeknights has demonstrated its usefulness, particularly in rural areas where there are fewer general practitioners. But it is now threatened by the financing reform project. GPs are sounding the alarm. “Today, this number no longer answers, or at least it answers badly. We have problems with the 1733 and it does not get better at all, we even see acute problems which persist and are now becoming structural”he points.
“We’ve all been on our toes since this circular was put in place”
In the viewfinder of the sector, a ministerial circular which imposes from March 1 harmonization of the operation of on-call medical posts. For example, it is planned that citizens can go to medical stations without making a prior appointment via 1733.
Dinant district: number 1733 short of staff
The circular implies that the transmission to the on-call medical post (PMG), of information received during a call, is done by email in a structured language called XML and no longer by telephone. She also wants the PMG to have an administrative agent to read the messages within 15 minutes of receiving them, welcome patients referred to the PMG and organize visits.
“It is irresponsible towards the patients””
Problem, for the federation of associations of general practitioners of Wallonia, the PMG have neither the staff nor the necessary budgets. “We received this circular on November 21 without consultation, and it asks for a new way of organizing, deplores Guy Delrée. It imposes costs that are not funded by INAMI, we are asked to do things without having additional means, especially since the deadline to apply it was too fast and in the midst of an influenza and covid epidemic”.
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According to the general practitioners involved, the circular puts a real “knife shot” in the 1733 project. “For example, we have to make our mobile phone numbers public, which is nonsense for us, people risk losing the habit of dialing 1733. There will therefore be no more sorting and this poses a big problem. It’s a cut of 1773, we close the floodgates of public health without worrying regarding plan B for patients and doctors, it’s irresponsible for patients, who are very often vulnerable. Doctors are furious at not being contacted, sometimes ambulances are sent instead of doctors, I saw this once more on the ground a few days ago in several nursing homes”.
In the cabinets, it is the reign of resourcefulness. “We are all on our toes since the introduction of this circulartestifies Yolande Moreno of the Fléron and Huy guard medical station. We are not at all in this idea of solving the shortage of doctors, the management of 1733 has become very complicated, we have to cross our fingers every day. At this stage, it is not livable”.
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