The health commission of the Chamber of Deputies presented a series of plans to reduce the waiting times for IRMs, scans, and mammographies.
New equipment, new working times, and central scheduling are to reduce the waiting times which were highlighted in a petition that quickly gained ground and collected the necessary signatures.
Already in March did parliament conduct an extensive public debate on the matter, and as of Tuesday, the concerned parliamentary commission is working through various plans of action.
Depending on urgency and location, patients can wait up to 60 days for an MRI appointment. And this despite 80,000 MRIs being conducted in Luxembourg annually.
By the end of the year, one new machine will be added in the health centres Potaschberg and in Wiltz, respectively. Luxembourg should then have 13 MRI machines, compared to just seven in 2014. There is also to be a pilot project to extend the working hours of MRI centers on weekdays and weekends to make room for a thousand more patients.
Nonetheless, these plans aren't far-reaching enough. Sven Clement of the Pirate Party proposes a centralized appointment system to create a good and more effective overview of the availability, whereas the Green Party demands more precise monitoring to determine where the devices should really be stationed.
Nathalie Oberweis of the Déi Lénk also added there should be more transparency between the clinics and their antennas which could again contribute to a better overview for medical imagery in the Grand Duchy.
Mars di Bartolomeo responded with confidence in these new plans and already sees improvement: waiting times for a mammography have decreased from 18 months to 12. With a reorganisation of the scheduling services, these should decrease even more.
