General practitioners are worried. The medical call number, 1733, is not operational. Often the wait times are extremely long. All calls in Wallonia are grouped together in two call centers, but obviously there is also a lack of staff.
One Saturday morning, a few weeks ago, Christiane, victim of a drop in blood pressure (and given her background), dialed 1733. But surprise, the octogenarian falls on an answering machine. “I’m told that 1733 is inaccessible, and that you have to dial 112. It’s sending people away. You can’t say there’s anything reassuring in that. Call 112.. .”she regrets.
Christiane considers her account non-urgent. She therefore refuses to call 112 and waited until Monday to see her doctor. One example among many.
General practitioners deplore a lack of efficiency in handling calls to 1733. “We send things back to the emergency room that shouldn’t go there at all, with patients who don’t want to go at all either. Patients who weren’t at all asking for this kind of thing “criticizes Christian Guyot, a general practitioner.
“We realize that there is only one attendant for several hundred thousand people. That when we telephone, there is a delay which sometimes reaches 45 minutes. These are not satisfactory answers. Of course there are a lot of people who get discouraged”estimates Guy Delrée, the president of the federation of associations of general practitioners of Wallonia.
The two call centers responsible for responding for the whole of Wallonia are understaffed. Consequence: some requests would not be processed even though doctors are available in the on-call stations. “We are told more attendants, ok, but how long will they stay? Is this a short-term or long-term solution? We are really angry, disappointed, tired. We would like to go home, treat our patients, do our guards quietly. Instead, we have to fight all the time”concludes Guy Delrée.
The Federal Minister of Health says he is attentive to the concerns of general practitioners. He announces that he is unlocking additional means to respond to the difficulties of 1733. The medical world awaits the realization of these promises.