Medical studies are a source of concern for the government. Negotiations have been underway for several months between the Federal Government and the Walloon-Brussels Federation concerning a filter at the entrance to the medical degree programme. The Federal Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, wants the number of students in the course to correspond to the number of RIZIV/INAMI numbers available at the end of the course, which is not the case today on the French-speaking side.
“I am quite confident that an agreement will be reached,” commented Valérie Glatigny, the FWB’s minister for higher education, who was invited to appear on BX1. “This is a problem that has been poisoning political life for more than 25 years and that poisons the lives of medical students since there is uncertainty when you start your medical course.”
The Minister said that she would already ensure that “all students in the current curriculum will have an RIZIV/INAMI number at the end of the curriculum. It is important to be able to give students legal certainty. For me, this is a fundamental guideline. Something that seems to be a given at this stage in the negotiations with Vandenbroucke. “The second beacon is that we can objectify the needs on the ground in terms of doctors”, Valérie Glatigny also assured.
One measure mentioned to match the number of students to the available RIZIV/INAMI numbers is an entrance exam. The minister is not opposed to this: “For me, the competition is not a taboo provided that we obtain results on the two markers. If we obtain these guarantees, a competitive examination is possible. An exam gives students security and there is the additional argument of the quality of the training.
OP’s translation is wrong and misleading. There is already an entrance exam in Francophone education (with a passing rate between 15 and 20 % across the years). The question now is should this entrance exam (examen d’entrée/toelatingexamen) become a competitive examination (concours/ don’t know dutch translation for this word). If it becomes a competitive examination, it would mean that students would be ranked and only the top x % would be admitted. In practice it would mean further decreasing the pass rate to x %.
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Note that the entrance exam for medical degrees is *already* a competitive examination for international students because there is a lot of French students coming to Belgium to study medicine and international students cannot be more than 30 % of the total number of students in medical degrees.
The french side not doing their part. On the flemish side their is no problem at all.
The problem lies with INAMI numbers. Not with students achieving a degree.
So again the French community looks to the Flemish community to fix a mess they are not responsible for. Disgraceful.
The real problem is the INAMI number which is basically a product of the medicine order to maximize the money for doctors…
For two years we have seen the limits of a system that arbitrarily sets the number of doctors and hospitals that operate on a just-in-time basis. Entire areas in Wallonia are becoming medical deserts where it is impossible to find a GP within 20 km. Many people find this normal here. All this because some idiots think that the number of patients will be increased by increasing the number of doctors. In addition, many French students come to study in Wallonia to avoid their exams and international agreements do not allow for a strong limitation. Some stay a while, get their number and then go home with it. The numbers are not redistributed. Many old doctors (including some famous ministers) stop working as doctors and keep their number for small family prescriptions. This makes no sense.
And what about hospitals that are forced to hire foreign doctors because there are no young graduates? They are obviously given a number when they start practicing in Belgium. This system is flawed and the limit must disappear. Maintaining it is only a means of pressure to kill health care.
The only ones who say there is no shortage among MDs are the MD lobbies. They want to artificially preserve there rarity to keep high wages. The result is MDs working over 60 even 70 hours a week, huge waiting periods to get appointments in some specialities, more and more work done by the nurses and other healthcare workers (who don’t get paid more), and hiring more and more foreigners to fill in the vacancies in some domains (even people speaking none of the country languages).
And our stupid politicians keep believing that if there are more MDs there will be more care given (more MDs, more sick people of course!) and thus it will cost more. But that’s the exact opposite; just open the MDs market and the wages will drop after some time. Why keep protecting this profession that much? Thatsy just utterly stupid.
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Medical studies are a source of concern for the government. Negotiations have been underway for several months between the Federal Government and the Walloon-Brussels Federation concerning a filter at the entrance to the medical degree programme. The Federal Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, wants the number of students in the course to correspond to the number of RIZIV/INAMI numbers available at the end of the course, which is not the case today on the French-speaking side.
“I am quite confident that an agreement will be reached,” commented Valérie Glatigny, the FWB’s minister for higher education, who was invited to appear on BX1. “This is a problem that has been poisoning political life for more than 25 years and that poisons the lives of medical students since there is uncertainty when you start your medical course.”
The Minister said that she would already ensure that “all students in the current curriculum will have an RIZIV/INAMI number at the end of the curriculum. It is important to be able to give students legal certainty. For me, this is a fundamental guideline. Something that seems to be a given at this stage in the negotiations with Vandenbroucke. “The second beacon is that we can objectify the needs on the ground in terms of doctors”, Valérie Glatigny also assured.
One measure mentioned to match the number of students to the available RIZIV/INAMI numbers is an entrance exam. The minister is not opposed to this: “For me, the competition is not a taboo provided that we obtain results on the two markers. If we obtain these guarantees, a competitive examination is possible. An exam gives students security and there is the additional argument of the quality of the training.
Translated with [www.DeepL.com/Translator](http://www.DeepL.com/Translator) (free version)
Huh – there isn’t one already?!?!
OP’s translation is wrong and misleading. There is already an entrance exam in Francophone education (with a passing rate between 15 and 20 % across the years). The question now is should this entrance exam (examen d’entrée/toelatingexamen) become a competitive examination (concours/ don’t know dutch translation for this word). If it becomes a competitive examination, it would mean that students would be ranked and only the top x % would be admitted. In practice it would mean further decreasing the pass rate to x %.
​
Note that the entrance exam for medical degrees is *already* a competitive examination for international students because there is a lot of French students coming to Belgium to study medicine and international students cannot be more than 30 % of the total number of students in medical degrees.
The french side not doing their part. On the flemish side their is no problem at all.
The problem lies with INAMI numbers. Not with students achieving a degree.
So again the French community looks to the Flemish community to fix a mess they are not responsible for. Disgraceful.
The real problem is the INAMI number which is basically a product of the medicine order to maximize the money for doctors…
For two years we have seen the limits of a system that arbitrarily sets the number of doctors and hospitals that operate on a just-in-time basis. Entire areas in Wallonia are becoming medical deserts where it is impossible to find a GP within 20 km. Many people find this normal here. All this because some idiots think that the number of patients will be increased by increasing the number of doctors. In addition, many French students come to study in Wallonia to avoid their exams and international agreements do not allow for a strong limitation. Some stay a while, get their number and then go home with it. The numbers are not redistributed. Many old doctors (including some famous ministers) stop working as doctors and keep their number for small family prescriptions. This makes no sense.
And what about hospitals that are forced to hire foreign doctors because there are no young graduates? They are obviously given a number when they start practicing in Belgium. This system is flawed and the limit must disappear. Maintaining it is only a means of pressure to kill health care.
The only ones who say there is no shortage among MDs are the MD lobbies. They want to artificially preserve there rarity to keep high wages. The result is MDs working over 60 even 70 hours a week, huge waiting periods to get appointments in some specialities, more and more work done by the nurses and other healthcare workers (who don’t get paid more), and hiring more and more foreigners to fill in the vacancies in some domains (even people speaking none of the country languages).
And our stupid politicians keep believing that if there are more MDs there will be more care given (more MDs, more sick people of course!) and thus it will cost more. But that’s the exact opposite; just open the MDs market and the wages will drop after some time. Why keep protecting this profession that much? Thatsy just utterly stupid.