2023-04-18 17:03:52
In a joint letter addressed to the federal government, the two Flemish ministers believe that the methodology used by the medical supply planning commission – which submits an opinion to the federal government each year on the number of new doctors needed – is problematic and does not does not take sufficient account of the weight of each Community.
Although they were pleased that the mechanism made it possible to train more doctors to reduce the shortage of practitioners in Flanders, Mr Weyts and Mrs Crevits nevertheless regretted that the distribution between the Communities did not, in their view, take sufficient account of the number of inhabitants between north and south of the country.
However, taking into account the volume of the population “constitutes an important guarantee for a balanced distribution of the number of doctors between the Communities”, write the two ministers. For them, this balance is today “abused by a methodological construction that does not seem fair to us”.
If the advice of the planning commission is followed, the number of quotas will now be distributed between Communities according to a 55/45 key, worry the two Flemish ministers, whereas it was until now 60% for the Flanders, against 40% for French speakers.
For the record, after years of arm wrestling, the federal government and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation found a compromise last year on the thorny issue of Inami numbers.
In exchange for an increase in the number of French-speaking practitioners and the regularization of the supernumerary quotas allocated for years, the FWB has undertaken for its part to organize an entrance examination, as has already been practiced for several years by Flanders.
This competition will only allow, from the start of the next school year, a predetermined number of candidates to enter the faculties of medicine, which should allow the FWB to respect the quota of doctors imposed by the Federal Government.
In a comment to Belga on Tuesday, Minister Weyts is even more acerbic than in his missive: “It is obvious that sharing the number of doctors according to the number of populations and health needs is the most objective,” said the Flemish nationalist.
“The federal government approved a regulation last year that gives pride of place to Francophones. And I can’t imagine we’re going to get down on our knees again.”
Directly implicated, the Federal Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) recalls that the current mechanism makes it possible to deviate from the opinion of the planning commission and to allocate more Inami quotas to Flanders if necessary in order to to make up for its lack of practitioners.
The socialist also says he is ready to start a “constructive and in-depth” consultation with the Flemish executive about the planning procedure.
Mr. Vandenbroucke specifies that he had previously sent the Flemish government an invitation to dialogue, but that this unfortunately remained unanswered, according to him.
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