Doctors strike today against healthcare funding reforms

Doctors and dentists in Belgium are taking part in a one-day strike on Monday in protest against federal government reforms to healthcare spending.

The Belgian Association of Medical Unions - ABSyM - has called the strike, which also extends to staff at health insurance firms (mutuelles).

ABSyM announced last week that it was maintaining its strike notice against the reform, which it said threatened the autonomy of healthcare workers and the financial stability of hospitals.

National health and social welfare institute Inami, insurance firms and unions representing doctors and dentists were invited to a meeting with federal health minister Frank Vandenbroucke last week - but they complained that they only received a new draft of the minister's law a few hours before the negotiations began.

"It is impossible to analyse the changes made to the text in detail, but a quick reading shows that even if the amended text meets some of the demands made by the medical unions, they remain generally insufficient and difficult to implement on the ground," said ABSyM president Patrick Emonts.

Many non-urgent medical and dental appointments will be cancelled on Monday. As well as general practitioners and dentists, surgeons and specialists are also expected to take part in the one-day walkout.

The draft law aims to set a cap on how much extra a doctor can charge on top of the regulated consultation fee.

It also plans to scrap the current system where part of a doctor's fee contributes to funding the hospital in which they work. Instead, hospitals would be fully funded, directly, by the state.

While many individual doctors are against the reforms, Belgium's federation of medical centres (maisons médicales) supports the changes.

"If we look at the substance of the reform, it's actually a positive reform," said Fanny Dubois, secretary-general of the federation. "It's positive that there will be a regulation of additional consultation fees. It is not normal that there are excessive additional fees that vary from one hospital to another."

She added: "We need more transparency about doctors' incomes to be able to better regulate use of public money."