The government has unveiled a new hospital reform, bill 8760, to ease burdens on the country’s hospitals. The proposed law would allow doctors to set up outpatient structures linked to hospitals, while requiring these doctors to participate in the hospital on-call system, in an effort to avoid direct competition between hospitals and independent practices.
However, Dr Monique Reiff, president of the Association of Hospital Doctors, told RTL the reform still leaves "a lot of questions that are not yet resolved". She pointed out that, from the hospital doctors’ perspective, the distinction between existing hospital satellite centres and the proposed new doctor associations must be made clearer, particularly regarding the nature of agreements or conventions with hospitals.
"What is the difference between a hospital satellite and a doctors’ association, especially if there is an agreement with a hospital? Is the hospital even interested in entering such an agreement? And what if a doctors’ association forms, but the hospital does not want to sign?" she asked, emphasising that "there are still many open questions". Dr Reiff also highlighted the need to clarify how such agreements would work in practice, particularly given the variety of working models in Luxembourg’s hospitals and practices.
She noted that, for instance, salaried doctors in public hospitals and those in liberal group practices already collaborate in different ways, raising questions about how the new structures would interact with existing ones.
World Cup Fever has firmly set in at RTL Today towers and we all cannot wait for it to start. A new daily bulletin, reviewing and previewing all the games, has dropped today!
Finance Minister, Gilles Roth, has defended the €450 million tripartite deal as well invested in social peace.
Stay connected: Tune in to RTL Today Radio, now on 93.3 FM and DAB+, and be sure to catch our full bulletin on the hour, every hour, and headlines at half past the hour.
