In Flanders and Brussels, twenty Flemish public associations hold a working day on Tuesday to demand a better flow of information between general practitioners and specialists. In the first place, they would like to thank the specialists who have already sent good reports, but note that this can be done better in many places.
The working day was officially started at UZ Brussel in Jette by Wouter Beke, Minister for Welfare, Public Health, Family and Poverty Reduction, together with Marc Noppen, CEO of UZ Brussel and Kenneth Coenye, Chief Medical Officer Sint-Jan Brussels and Roel van Geel, President Domus Medica. General Practitioner Frank Mertens explained that as the patient’s global medical record manager (GMD), he must update him daily with incoming correspondence, lab results, and all kinds of investigations. And this sometimes still goes wrong.
“Sometimes the specialist changes the medication and only passes this on to the patient. This can lead to dangerous situations where sometimes the medication is taken twice or not,” Mertens says.
In other cases, reports are written in unclear language, sent late or not directly to the GP.
GP rings reinforce their message with a poster campaign with fun slogans. “Your report is eye-catching,” reads next to an eye examination picture or “Thanks for your emergency report” on a poster of an ambulance carrying a patient.
The working day was officially started at UZ Brussel in Jette by Wouter Beke, Minister for Welfare, Public Health, Family and Poverty Reduction, together with Marc Noppen, CEO of UZ Brussel and Kenneth Coenye, Chief Medical Officer Sint-Jan Brussels and Roel van Geel, President Domus Medica. General Practitioner Frank Mertens explained that as the patient’s global medical record manager (GMD), he must update him daily with incoming correspondence, lab results, and all kinds of investigations. And this sometimes still goes wrong. “Sometimes the specialist changes the medication and just informs the patient about it,” Mertens says. “This can lead to dangerous situations where sometimes the medication is taken twice or not.” In other cases the reports are prepared in unclear language, are sent too late or the reports are not sent directly to the GP. GP rings reinforce their message with a poster campaign with fun slogans. “Your report is eye-catching,” reads next to an eye examination picture or “Thanks for your emergency report” on a poster of an ambulance carrying a patient.
