On 16 December, the unions already held a day of action in the non-profit sector, which includes hospitals, residential care centres, youth care and child care. A national demonstration will follow today. The demonstrators left at 10.30 a.m. at Brussels North Station, from there they head towards South Station.
The country’s various governments must take urgent action against staff shortages, the unions say. “The work pressure is rising, we feel the shortages everywhere,” says Jan-Piet Bauwens of trade union BBTK. “Every day people are presented with new timetables, sometimes they even just get a text message saying: ‘You have to come to work tomorrow’. That is untenable.”
“Healthcare providers sometimes have to introduce admission freezes and beds in hospitals cannot be used because of staff shortages,” adds Mark Selleslach of ACV Puls. “We cannot wait for next year’s elections and the coalition formation, protracted or otherwise, after that. It is irresponsible to keep the sector waiting any longer. We want to send that crisis signal.”
“I am going to demonstrate today mainly out of solidarity for colleagues,” said Sanne Thyrion, a union representative at Voluit, a care home for people with intellectual disabilities. “I myself have many acquaintances and friends who work in hospitals and residential care centres and they are drowning in work,” Thyrion said on “De ochtend” on Radio 1.
“It is a vicious circle: due to a lack of resources, more and more people drop out, which increases the workload for their colleagues. As a result, the job is also no longer attractive and the vacancies do not get filled. There are currently 7,000 vacancies in the care sector: we feel that everywhere and it affects everyone: we all know someone who needs care.”
It is not the intention of the unions to disrupt healthcare operations during the demonstration, Selleslach further said. “There is a minimum service requirement, which is roughly equivalent to a Sunday shift,” he explains. “We don’t want to cause any inconvenience to people who need care.”
The demonstration will most likely cause a lot of inconvenience for those who need to be in the centre of Brussels this morning, however. Police are warning of traffic disruption in the city centre. The activities of Brussels waste collection services are also likely to be disrupted.
Transport company STIB expects disruption especially on bus routes in the city centre, especially along the route of the demonstration. For its part, SNCB is not assuming any delays on its network.
The most insane thing is the inefficiency in healthcare, we have to schedule an appointment with a doctor to receive test results in many cases. In other countries you can just view your results online, the doctor only reaches out if there’s an result that requires additional care.
We just have too many hospitals for our size and our current budget.
Further centralization will reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce the amount of needed personnel.
3 comments
On 16 December, the unions already held a day of action in the non-profit sector, which includes hospitals, residential care centres, youth care and child care. A national demonstration will follow today. The demonstrators left at 10.30 a.m. at Brussels North Station, from there they head towards South Station.
The country’s various governments must take urgent action against staff shortages, the unions say. “The work pressure is rising, we feel the shortages everywhere,” says Jan-Piet Bauwens of trade union BBTK. “Every day people are presented with new timetables, sometimes they even just get a text message saying: ‘You have to come to work tomorrow’. That is untenable.”
“Healthcare providers sometimes have to introduce admission freezes and beds in hospitals cannot be used because of staff shortages,” adds Mark Selleslach of ACV Puls. “We cannot wait for next year’s elections and the coalition formation, protracted or otherwise, after that. It is irresponsible to keep the sector waiting any longer. We want to send that crisis signal.”
“I am going to demonstrate today mainly out of solidarity for colleagues,” said Sanne Thyrion, a union representative at Voluit, a care home for people with intellectual disabilities. “I myself have many acquaintances and friends who work in hospitals and residential care centres and they are drowning in work,” Thyrion said on “De ochtend” on Radio 1.
“It is a vicious circle: due to a lack of resources, more and more people drop out, which increases the workload for their colleagues. As a result, the job is also no longer attractive and the vacancies do not get filled. There are currently 7,000 vacancies in the care sector: we feel that everywhere and it affects everyone: we all know someone who needs care.”
It is not the intention of the unions to disrupt healthcare operations during the demonstration, Selleslach further said. “There is a minimum service requirement, which is roughly equivalent to a Sunday shift,” he explains. “We don’t want to cause any inconvenience to people who need care.”
The demonstration will most likely cause a lot of inconvenience for those who need to be in the centre of Brussels this morning, however. Police are warning of traffic disruption in the city centre. The activities of Brussels waste collection services are also likely to be disrupted.
Transport company STIB expects disruption especially on bus routes in the city centre, especially along the route of the demonstration. For its part, SNCB is not assuming any delays on its network.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The most insane thing is the inefficiency in healthcare, we have to schedule an appointment with a doctor to receive test results in many cases. In other countries you can just view your results online, the doctor only reaches out if there’s an result that requires additional care.
We just have too many hospitals for our size and our current budget.
Further centralization will reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce the amount of needed personnel.