2023-04-17 18:19:00
General practitioners plan to strike to protest against the measures of the Minister of Health. Frank Vandenbroucke absolutely wants the guards at 1733 to be assured, day and night. But there is a lack of staff. General practitioners must therefore distribute these guards.
From now on, night duty is provided by two doctors (one at the medical post for consultations and another for home visits). A new organization difficult to set up.
“It’s not easy to find doctors who want to put themselves at the disposal of on-call duty. And even more difficult to put a doctor who is not going to do anything. Because two doctors to manage two cases per night, that’s still a lot of doctors, says Luc Herry, president of Absym (Belgian Association of Medical Unions).
Due to a lack of personnel, the 1733 service, which normally handles non-urgent calls, is no longer able to provide night duty. The Federal Minister of Health wants doctors to compensate for this lack of manpower. “Finding 30 to 40 more doctors every day will be mission impossible”, selon Luc Harry.
There are around thirty guard posts in Wallonia. Today, it is estimated that they manage on average a little more than one call per 100,000 inhabitants. A situation that should change according to Frank Vandenbroucke.
“There were agreements in Wallonia between doctors to see patients overnight only in certain cases (intolerable pain, death certificates, nursing home residents and palliative care patients). This was never a directive official (…) 1733 will now follow official guidelines, which means that some patients with sufficient levels of urgency can also be seen overnight”said the Minister of Health.
Faced with these new measures, general practitioners say they are ready to go on strike. “I believe that the doctors, the colleagues, will perhaps manage to block this night guard. But that is not our wish”, says Luc Herry.
The Minister of Health ensures that the discussions continue. He explains that he wants to find long-term structural solutions with general practitioners.
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