Although the Ministry of Health and the Hospital Federation signed a respective convention, the system is flawed, which continues increasing frustrations in the sector and causing problems with patient care.
At the Robert Schuman hospital group (HRS), 16 out of 42 doctors on daily on-call duty are not reimbursed. Furthermore, only two anaesthetists are working, which is considered insufficient according to Dr Cyril Thix, president of the HRS medical council.
“We already need one anaesthetist in every ICU at every site. So there is a third anaesthetist only in charge of the operating rooms for on-call duty and emergencies at the Kirchberg site, which is not taken into account at all.”
The third anaesthetist is currently on call, although they are not compensated for this unlike their colleagues. In neurosurgery, no on-call duty is planned.
The affected anaesthetist is now considering how to continue: go on without compensation or stop doing on-call duty.
According to the AMMD, the Association of Doctors and Dentists (AMMD), all hospitals in the country are more or less affected since they all have more than one site.
According to Minister of Health Paulette Lenert, tasks have to be paid according to law, which she acknowledges is not detailed enough. She signed the convention with the Hospital Federation, but without the AMMD.
Minister Lenert went on to explain that it is a pilot project overseen by an evaluation committee, which will draw its conclusions and make potential adaptions by the end of the year.
A number of critical points will have to be discussed. For example, the indexation of tariffs. There is also the problem that during the week, on-call duty is only compensated from the evening until 7am. However, if the doctor is called during the day and has to cancel consultations with their patients, they will not receive any compensation.
The Hospital Federation demands that the AMMD be awarded a spot on the evaluation committee of the pilot project together with the medical councils of the hospitals. The latter have already participated in the first meeting.
The Minister of Health says she is open for dialogue and that the project only came about very recently. We should now give ourselves a year to analyse things in practice with hindsight and make the right adjustments, concluded the politician.
