Doctors’ surgeries in Luxembourg could stay open later in the evenings, the health minister said Wednesday, amid a debate over the alleged privatisation of the country’s healthcare system.
The Grand Duchy’s two trade unions on Tuesday hit out at what they claim are government plans to privatise healthcare in the country, after the health ministry said last month that it planned to allow private sector operators to manage certain outpatient care services.
“We do not want to globally privatise [healthcare in Luxembourg],” Deprez told the Luxembourg Times in an interview.
Current plans aim to move less complex surgical procedures, particularly in the areas of dermatology and ophthalmology, to outpatient centres in an effort to reduce hospital waiting times.
The minister said she wants to make sure that physicians are the first to be consulted when people are looking for medical advice.
“At one point we want to make and allow [doctors surgeries] to open later in the evening, [so] that people [do] not come to [the] emergency services,” Deprez said.
“One of my aims is to reduce waiting times essentially in emergency rooms,” she added.
The OGBL and LCGB unions said in their Tuesday statement that the planned reform to move some hospital care to outpatient services “marks a dangerous turning point: the opening of the Luxembourg healthcare system to the logic of profit”.
Responding to the unions’ statement, a spokesperson for the health ministry on Tuesday 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”.
As part of plans to try plug doctor shortages and reduce waiting times Luxembourg announced last week that it will open a health centre staffed by “freelance” doctors next year.
The FindelClinic is due to open near the airport by March 2026 with the concept 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 Grand Duchy’s healthcare system is facing a number of problems.
Just under two weeks ago, the AMMD officially ended its agreement that sets billing procedures and payment rates with the country’s main public health insurer, amid a row 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 the existing convention remains valid, meaning that nothing will change for patients over the next twelve months.