It is a hard blow for the children who are hospitalized there, as well as their families. The UZ Brussel university hospital, located in Jette in the north of Brussels, and which depends on the Free University of Brusselsis closing the beds in its pediatric oncology service, that is to say the service where children suffering from cancer are treated.
The hospital mentions difficulties in recruiting oncologists for children: “For various reasons, including staff shortages due to vacation and illness, and staff changes, we are in a situation of staff shortages. We are therefore forced to have to transfer the patients followed here for care. direct to other hospitals”, explains Karolien De Prez, spokesperson for UZ Brussel.
15 transfers
In total, 15 children are to be transferred these days to other Brussels hospitals which have such a service (Huderf, Saint-Luc) or to other Flemish university hospitals (Leuven, Gent).
The hospital speaks of a passing phase that it intends to overcome: “This is a temporary situation of staff shortage. We are currently discussing with doctors to strengthen the team. We are in Belgium in a situation of shortage of specialized paediatricians”.
Temporary situation?
According to sources close to the service, however, the operational problems are not new. Overplanning of oncologists, deep differences between doctors and management: two of the three oncologists have just resigned, exhausted, from the service which, according to the hospital, receives 25 children a year (a statistic that is difficult to verify).
At the Kickcancer foundation, which finances research on childhood cancers, the founder Delphine Heenen, thinks it is the very model of the pediatric oncology department at UZ that is to be called into question. In particular its small size: “We have been convinced for a very long time that centers that are too small are a problem in pediatric oncology. Not because the doctors are not competent but because they do not have the chance to acquire the necessary experience.“.
Today the UZ believes that it is able to continue the activity control small patients who have exited the main phase of treatment.
