© Raymond Lemmens
healthcare
The Council of State has annulled the mandatory partnerships for GP out-of-hours posts. Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke announced this on Wednesday.
The doctors’ union BVAS had gone to the Council of State against the Royal Decree of September 10, 2020 on “medical permanence by general practitioners and the recognition of functional partnerships”. That royal decree, drawn up by then Minister of Health Maggie De Block (Open VLD), stipulates that since 2021, general practitioners can only organize their permanence in recognized partnerships of at least three general practitioner outpatient posts for 300,000 residents or more. The Royal Decree was annulled because it exceeded the authority of a caretaker government.
Next government
Last year, the financing of the guard posts was also aligned with the larger partnerships. These new rules would come into effect next year, but will be meaningless after their annulment.
Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) now wants to start preparing a new decision. However, there is not enough time before the elections to complete this. It will therefore be a file for the next legislature, but in the meantime the old financing will remain in force.