29 doctors conducted over 5,000 phone consultations in a year, prompting a system overhaul, reports La Libre on Friday.
Since 15 February, phone consultations are temporarily no longer reimbursed by the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV), pending a reform of the Covid-era system. The decision stems from unjustified excess spending in this area. Video consultations remain unaffected.
Just over 5.6 million telephone consultations were conducted in 2023 by 10,935 doctors, according to figures provided by the Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke's office to La Libre. Roughly 90% were general practitioners, and 10% were specialists.
Of these doctors, 96.1% conducted fewer than 2,000 telephone consultations last year. This trend is expected to continue in 2024. However, 428 doctors, making up 3.9%, conducted over 2,000 phone consultations.
Among those, 29 doctors exceeded 5,000 phone consultations, with one surpassing 11,000. "If you do the maths," Vandenbroucke added, "it means they had to provide at least five hours of continuous phone consultations for over 180 days."
