In Luxembourg, unlike in many other countries, it is left up to individual doctors to decide whether – and how – to pursue continuing professional development (CPD). This raises a question for patients visiting a dentist, GP, or specialist: how can they be sure their doctor is up to date with the latest medical standards?
“You can ask them. Otherwise, you have no way of finding out, because we also have no idea who undertakes continuing professional development and who doesn’t”, says Dr Monique Aubart-Schuller from the Medical Board. Since there is no requirement to provide proof of CPD in Luxembourg, no statistics on the matter exist.
The situation differs in Luxembourg’s neighbouring countries and elsewhere abroad, where medical CPD is regulated. In those jurisdictions, doctors must demonstrate that they are meeting their obligations, with potential consequences for non-compliance. These can range from being de-listed – meaning the doctor can no longer work with the national health fund – to having their licence to practise medicine revoked.
To avoid casting general suspicion: many doctors in the Grand Duchy – likely the vast majority – do keep up to date with the latest developments in their field. GPs even have a dedicated association for this purpose, ALFORMEC.
Continuing education is offered in hospitals, but not everything can be learned within Luxembourg, prompting many doctors to travel abroad for training.
This is also one of the reasons why the Grand Duchy still lacks a regulated system, explains Dr David Heck, Secretary General of the Medical Board.
“These are different countries, different systems, different training courses. A decision would have to be made as to which training courses would be recognised”, Dr Heck said.
This task was supposed to have been taken on 20 years ago by the Luxembourg Institute for Continuing Medical Education (ILFMC). However, that never happened, according to Dr Aubart-Schuller. The institute was a non-profit organisation run by volunteers, and the workload simply proved too great, she acknowledged.
The Medical Board is in favour of regulating mandatory medical CPD. Such a system would need to define how many training courses are necessary, how frequently they should be undertaken, and which content would be recognised. “As long as there isn’t a clear framework, it’s difficult to enforce this obligation”, Dr Aubart-Schuller said.
However, this would require political will, emphasises Dr Heck. The Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) and the Democratic Party (DP) have expressed such intent in their government programme, which includes a plan to put in place a system for the recognition and validation of medical CPD. At least, that is the stated goal.
In an RTL Radio interview on Wednesday, DP MP Dr Gérard Schockmel characterised the creation of a CPD system by selecting a role model country to emulate as “low hanging fruit”.
