Belgium has 3.2 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, which ranks it second to last country in the whole of the European Union, all of this combined with an unreassuring demography. This situation risks worsening access to care.
In 2023 and on the basis of the current planning, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has the right to allow 607 qualified doctors to begin a specialization at the end of their 6 years of study.
1 Outdated planning
In its latest opinion, the Federal Planning Commission suggested reserving 266 places out of 607 for general medicine, or 43.82%.
For medical associations, including Marianne Michel, pediatrician and president of the French-speaking specialist branch, this is insufficient. “There is a lack of specialists. The planning no longer corresponds to the reality on the ground and the reality of care as it is currently organized in Belgium”analyzes Marianne Michel, for whom the shortage seems to be accelerating.
2 Less expenses
Why not open the specialization to more candidates? For Jean-Christophe Goffard, director of internal medicine at Erasmus and member of the planning commission, like many others, “This was decided partly to control health care expenditure on the one hand but also to improve the quality of training of our doctors by having a reduced number who would enter training.” Understand: if there are too many doctors, too many acts are performed and therefore it costs social security too much. Consequence: waiting times have never been so long to make an appointment with a specialist.
3 A long journey
For Jean-Christophe Goffard, the number of years of study can also discourage candidates since “the specialties are mostly done in 6 years after the medical course”, i.e. 6 years + 6 years, 12 years to become a doctor specialist. A long road to take…