Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The Belgian government plans to offer financial incentives to trainee General Practitioners who choose to settle in areas facing a shortage of GPs, aiming to improve healthcare accessibility.
From September, General Practitioners (GPs) in training will be able to count on financial compensation if they settle in a municipality with a poor GP population. This was announced by Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke.
Making an appointment with the GP has not been so easy in recent years. Especially those who live in more rural areas often have to wait days before a place becomes available. The result of a shortage of general practitioners.Â
How does Belgium plan to address the GP shortage?
To tackle this problem, the federal government has already significantly increased the quota for the number of students allowed to start medical training in the past two years: 1,600 students were allowed to start in 2023, which is 324 more than the year before.
Can financial compensation attract GPs to underserved areas?
But Minister Vandenbroucke now also wants to give those students a push to ultimately choose to specialize in general practice. The government has set aside 2.26 million euros for this. An amount will be distributed among all GPs in training who choose to settle in a municipality where there is currently a major shortage of GPs.
It is not yet entirely clear how large this financial compensation will be. The Royal Decree, which will be published on June 7, states that the concrete distribution of the budget is left to the Dutch and French-speaking inter-university coordination centres. Suggested options include an incentive bonus and/or additional travel allowances. The measures will apply from September, the start of the next academic year.
How will the new policy impact healthcare accessibility?
“Accessible and affordable healthcare is an absolute priority for us. With this budget, with which we want to motivate young GPs in training to establish themselves in regions with few GPs, we are taking the next step to keep our healthcare accessible,” Minister Vandenbroucke said about the initiative.
