Sint-Niklaas (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Since February 15, 2025, Belgium has stopped reimbursing doctors for phone consultations, impacting 6.3 million calls in 2023. Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke cited high costs. Doctors, led by Dr. Jonathan Weetjens, protest this decision, fearing it jeopardizes patient care.
Since February 15, 2025, Belgium doctors have not been paid for phone consultations. Before this, they received about €10 for each call. The number of phone calls to doctors increased a lot, from 2.3 million in 2022 to 6.3 million in 2023.
According to Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, the costs were too high. He decided to stop the payments until at least the end of June 2025. Many doctors are unhappy with this choice. They believe phone consultations are important for helping elderly or sick patients and for those who need advice without visiting the doctor in person.
Will Sint-Niklaas GP practice stop phone consultations?
Many doctor groups are upset about the new policy that stops payment for phone consultations. They are asking doctors to stop answering phone calls from February 15 to March 15. The health centre AKTIV in Sint-Niklaas is joining this protest. They will not take calls for appointments or consultations starting Monday 24 February 2025.
According to Dr. Jonathan Weetiens, this protest is to show how important phone consultations are for patients. AKTIV usually works from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. But during the protest, they will not help patients over the phone. Doctors worry that ending payments for phone calls will affect patient care, especially for those who need quick advice.
“We want to point out that accessible care is at risk with this measure,”
Says doctor Jonathan Weetjens.
“Telephone consultations are an important instrument for offering patients high-quality care in an accessible way.”
According to doctors, phone consultations are very important for medical cases that do not need a physical exam. Doctors use these calls to discuss blood test results, set up referrals, or give general advice.
They mentioned that each afternoon, 3 doctors take calls at the same time for half an hour. Each doctor can manage about 6 calls at that time. This helps reduce the number of in-person visits needed.
“Discussing a blood result or a referral is much more efficient by telephone.”
Jonathan Weetjens, the doctor at the Aktiv Health Centre in Sint-Niklaas
Doctors are worried because they have not received clear answers. A meeting with Domus Medica is set for next week to get more information. Meanwhile, doctors are doing a symbolic action to ask for clearer rules about phone consultations. This will continue until next Friday, February 28, 2025. Urgent calls and cases needing quick attention will still be handled normally to ensure patient care is not affected.
“The measure would be temporary, but we have few guarantees about that at the moment. As a professional group, we do not know where we stand. We will meet with Domus Medica next week and hope to get more clarity there,”
Says Weetjens.
