The issue of quality assurance and patient safety in Luxembourg’s hospitals has come under renewed scrutiny, with Democratic Party (DP) MP Dr Gérard Schockmel describing the system’s capacity in this area as “very poor”.
Speaking on RTL Radio on Wednesday morning, Dr Schockmel addressed the ongoing affair involving temporarily suspended surgeon Dr Philippe Wilmes, characterising the situation as “unfortunate and sensitive”. He noted that a doctor’s inhibition to denounce a colleague is typically “very high”.
Dr Schockmel emphasised that he has been calling for stronger quality and patient safety measures for years. He stressed the importance of quality management and uniform standards, identifying freedom of treatment as a particular challenge in Luxembourg. In his view, this principle is often used as a carte blanche and is open to broad interpretation. For this reason, he argued, uniform standards – such as clear guidelines on when specific surgeries should be performed – are essential.
A further weakness of the current system, according to Dr Schockmel, is the lack of hierarchy and supervision within hospitals. Drawing comparisons with foreign and university hospitals, he noted the absence of positions such as senior or chief physicians, which provide a different level of oversight than what currently exists in the Grand Duchy. Medical directors, he explained, hold only certain organisational prerogatives, which they typically exercise on an auxiliary basis. Additionally, he suggested, they are often reluctant to make themselves unpopular among colleagues by “playing sheriff” and enforcing close management.
Dr Schockmel voiced support for the establishment of a “Centre for Medical Excellence”, a project included in the coalition agreement between the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) and the DP. Such a centre would digitally record all treatment results, allowing weaknesses to be identified and improvements to be implemented based on concrete, structured data. However, he cautioned that this would require better and more comprehensive digitalisation – an area where Luxembourg is “really lagging behind” and must accelerate its efforts.
The DP MP also pointed to significant shortcomings in the further training of doctors, lamenting that there has been no progress on this issue for decades. Although physicians are theoretically required to stay up to date, there are no specific legal obligations or controls to ensure compliance. Dr Schockmel assessed the situation soberly, stating that Luxembourg ranks “dead last” in Europe when it comes to continuing medical education.
Reflecting more broadly on the lack of movement across these issues, Dr Schockmel admitted he struggles to understand the inertia. While he identified freedom of treatment and the absence of internal hospital hierarchy as obstructive factors, he said he had no explanation for the stagnation in further training. He suggested that a simple solution would be to select a role model country to emulate, describing such a step as “low hanging fruit”.
