2023-12-20 16:50:00
On December 21, 2022, the boards of directors of the Liège University Hospital and the Citadelle hospital validated the hospital group project proposed by the general management. A year later, within a day, “the marriage contract is signed”.
In fact, the two CAs unanimously signed the CHU-Citadelle group agreement. Concretely, “it’s regarding structuring our already existing synergies to create a single large hospital,” explains Jean-Pierre Hupkens, president of the Citadelle board of directors. “It is the creation of a care center which will make it possible to drain all the patients from the Liège basin,” adds Philippe Boxho, his counterpart at the University Hospital.
The Liège University Hospital and the Citadelle hospital are joining forces.
“Excellent news” for the two institutions, which will unite under the same name (not yet known) and share a single direction.
For the patient, “it is also a real plus”, insists Philippe Boxho. Both from an administrative and pragmatic point of view, since he “will no longer have to, among other things, run everywhere to obtain quality care, everything will be centralized”. Grouping of doctors, grouping of patients, grouping of surgical interventions, or even grouping of sites, this “center of excellence” will offer a large-scale medical offer, “including for rare or acute diseases”, in “the one of the largest university hospitals in the country”.
With the “triple scarcity of doctors, nurses and financial resources”, joining forces “is a necessity, declares the president of the Board of Directors of the CHU, because “creating a center of excellence in the field of health increases funding” . “A larger entity inevitably means a greater number of pathological cases to treat, which will further convince political authorities to support us financially, while emphasizing our expertise,” he explains.
CHU and Citadelle: “This is not a merger”.
If the Boards of Directors are in favor, it remains to convince the Medical Councils. The medical negotiations, “which had already resulted in numerous compromise points, will continue, under the aegis of two mediators responsible for endorsing a general agreement”. “We are giving ourselves two years for the doctors to come to an agreement,” announces Jean-Pierre Hupkens. After which the grouping will not be effective.
“But the staff wants it to happen”, concludes Philippe Boxho, who admits that the task “will not be easy, but that we will get there, since the will is there”.
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