While Belgium hospitals stand out in patient and medical excellence, there is a general recognition from both political and administration level that there is room for improvement within ICT and process management at Belgian hospitals, specifically the private hospitals that represent 60% of the hospitals.

To leverage on this possibility, the Danish Embassy plans to run a knowledge exchange during 2012 with Danish and Belgian hospital management and relevant Danish ICT specialists in order to facilitate a constructive debate of how hospitals successfully can deliver on patient excellence in an effective and cost efficient way. 

Since there is Belgian recognition that Danish hospitals operate very efficiently (ICT), the embassy wants to use this window.

Healthcare reform approved

Belgium’s recently elected federal government has finally received the Parliament’s approval to a healthcare  reform which aims at meeting the social and  demographic challenges with the ageing population through the  provision of effective healthcare within a limited budget

The highlights of the reform are:

• A shift of competency and decision making from federal and regional level to the communities, an envelope of €4.2 mill has been transferred to the communities from the federal government to cover hospital infrastructure and nursing care.
  • Processes and decision making will be clearer, faster and more transparent
• Higher reimbursements for visual, dental and auditive care which also includes devices and products
• Further development and implementation of a national e-health platform, which in addition to electronic patient journals also combines smarter use of ICT and innovation to deliver effective healthcare
• Introduction of reference pricing

In general 2012 will see a big change in the whole economy around pharmaceutical purchasing at hospitals as recent legislation imposes stricter and more transparent tender processes on procurement and prescription of drugs.

mpeder@um.dk