Luxembourg’s two largest trade unions have hit out against what they claimed are government plans to privatise healthcare in the country, amid staff shortages and relatively long waiting times.
It comes after the Health Ministry said in a press release last month that it planned to allow private sector operators to manage certain outpatient care services.
“Under the guise of ‘efficiency’ and ‘modernisation’, this [planned] reform actually marks a dangerous turning point: the opening of the Luxembourg healthcare system to the logic of profit,” Luxembourg unions OGBL and LCGB said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
In a bid to reduce hospital waiting times, a bill on hospital law “will be amended to extend the outpatient care system to certain less complex surgical procedures, particularly in dermatology and ophthalmology”, the ministry added.
Responding to the unions’ statement, a spokesperson for the health ministry told the Luxembourg Times that its intention is “not to completely open ambulatory care to the extra-hospital sector”, but to undertake “a significant reform aimed at expanding the provision of outpatient medical services and opening up specialised outpatient care to the private sector”, repeating comments made in a press release announcing the plans in October.
At a closed doors meeting of parliament’s health committee on Monday, LSAP deputy Mars Di Bartolomeo criticised plans for a health clinic staffed by ‘freelance’ doctors which is set to open near the airport next year, in an attempt to improve waiting times and plug staff shortages.
The concept is being developed by Alain Schmit and Philippe Wilmes, who were previously senior figures in the association representing doctors and dentists in Luxembourg, the AMMD (Association des Médecins et Médecins-Dentistes).
The clinic is due to open by March 2026, with Schmit and Wilmes aiming to make the clinic an attractive option for foreign doctors wishing to practice in the Grand Duchy a few days a week.
Di Bartolomeo, questioned Health Minister Martine Deprez on whether it was a “medical project” involving private investors, or rather a real estate project involving doctors. “I have to say I don’t like either of those terms,” the deputy said, describing the arrangement as “dangerous”, according to the Luxemburger Wort.
The minister replied that whether the project could become “problematic” with regard to the Code of Ethics depended on its specific design. “But we are not there yet,” she said.
Deprez confirmed that part of the government’s strategy is to open the health system to the private sector, but stressed that this would only be in certain areas.
Just under two weeks ago, the association representing doctors and dentists in Luxembourg officially ended its agreement that sets billing procedures and payment rates with the country’s main public health insurer, amid a row with it over the funding and future direction of the health service.
The two sides will enter a transition phase set to last a year, during which time the existing convention remains valid, meaning that nothing will change for patients over the next twelve months.