In its file of the week, Moustique makes the check-up of Belgian health care in six questions without detour. Extracts.
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This is the most taboo part of this file: the comparison between hospitals. It is even more so since the pandemic. Usually, Sciensano publishes an annual assessment of hospital hygiene by hospital. This list aims to “prioritize and implement healthcare-associated infection prevention strategies and interventions to improve the quality of healthcare”. Why is it not made public? Sciensano gives us two reasons. A: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, many additional tasks were added to the hospital hygiene team, such as writing, implementing and updating Covid-19 procedures, supporting healthcare centers residential, etc. Since these additional tasks are not included in the overview of quality indicators, the efforts made by hospitals are undervalued”. Of them: “There is no added scientific value in presenting the results by hospital in a national report. The hospitals themselves have access to their hospital reports and are free to share them with the public”. In previous years, however, the results were indeed presented in such a national report.
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And the doctors?
Besides the hospital, choosing a doctor is another challenge for patients. Solidaris is today releasing a major survey on the subject. Mosquito consulted her first. It shows that the vast majority of Belgians (around 80%) choose their specialist thanks to the valuable advice of their GP, another healthcare provider or their relatives.
In Belgium, recalls the author of the study Bénédicte Vos, there are three types of doctors: contracted, partially contracted and non-contracted. The latter refuse to practice the fees negotiated in the sectoral agreements. The latter respect the latter during specific time slots only. According to Inami, 83.7% of specialists fully or partially adhere to the 2022-2023 medical-mutualist agreement. They are more numerous in Wallonia (88.8%) than in Brussels (84.9%) and Flanders (80%).
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Find the rest of these answers in our special file The hospital in questions, in your Mosquito of this week
In the program:
- Is the hospital care of good quality?
- Are all Belgian hospitals equal?
- What guarantees do patients have?
- Do all doctors have the same value?
- Are more expensive treatments better?
- Are patients sufficiently informed?
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