Following last week’s mass from the Centre hospitalier du Nord (CHDN) in Ettelbruck, the Fédération des hôpitaux luxembourgeois expressed their “deep regret.” The Federation also reiterated their support for the CHDN, insisted on the importance of maintaining and developing the attractiveness of hospital medicine for doctors, and proposed concrete ideas on how to improve the situation and recruit more staff.
Challenges to overcome
According to the 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Luxembourg’s health system is notable for its cohesion, its performance and its resilience.
However, challenges remain, including difficulty for patients in accessing care, a lack of human resources, and the need to improve the continuity of care between general medicine and hospital care. In fact, day hospitalisations in Luxembourg have increased tremendously over the past few years – from 31% of total admissions in 2010 to 44.8% of admissions in 2019. This rapid rise underlines the need for robust health care provision in hospitals.
What are the advantages of working in a hospital?
Hospital medicine consists of secondary health care services in a hospital 24 hours a day, as opposed to primary health care provided by a doctor in a “cabinet de ville,” or a private practice. It includes comprehensive medical care for hospitalised persons – from ordering X-rays to making diagnoses.
According to the FHL, advantages of hospital medicine feature the opportunity for health care professionals to work with interdisciplinary teams, as well as participate in clinical research projects or teaching.
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Proposals for improvement
With the aim to make hospital medicine more attractive when compared to private practice, the FHL made several suggestions as to how to concretely approach the recruitment of more personnel. The propositions include intensifying and actively supporting the development of trainings for doctors and health care professionals at the University of Luxembourg, fair remuneration for being on call at a hospital, and avoiding competition between the hospital sector and the out-of-hospital sector.
Returning to the topic of hiring of additional cardiologists for the Centre Hospitalier du Nord, the FHL noted that applications are arriving and the recruitment process is ongoing.
The FHL’s press conference was held by Dr Philippe Turk (president of the FHL), Dr Marc Berna (director general of the Hôpitaux Robert Schuman), Dr René Metz (director general of the Centre Hospitalier Emile Mayrisch), Dr Romain Nati (director general of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg) and Dr Paul Wirtgen (director general of the Centre Hospitalier du Nord).