Hospitals Adopt New Compensation Scheme for On-Call Doctors

On Thursday 17 November 2022, following the related decisions of the Government Council, the pilot project agreement on the organisation of a national compensation system for on-site duty and on-call duty for hospital doctors in hospitals and certain specialised establishments was signed between the State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL), represented by its president, Dr Philippe Turk, as well as its general secretary, Sylvain Vitali.

The agreement was signed in order to promote hospital medicine and to set up compensation for medical services in hospitals, both for on-site duty and for on-call duty provided under the relevant legal and regulatory provisions.

"This pilot project makes it possible to compensate quickly and retroactively from 1 June 2022 the on-site and on-call duties provided by doctors within the applicable legal and regulatory framework, while insisting on the establishment of a support committee and evaluation committee made up of representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Health Department, the general management and representatives of the medical profession concerned", underlined Minister Lenert.

The official signature ceremony took place in the presence of the four general managers of Luxembourg hospitals as co-signatories, namely Dr Marc Berna, General Manager of Robert Schuman Hospitals, Dr René Metz, General Manager of the Emile Mayrisch Hospital Center, Dr Romain Nati, Director General of the Center Hospitalier du Luxembourg and Dr Paul Wirtgen, Director General of the Center Hospitalier du Nord. In addition, the agreement was signed by Luc Gindt, General Manager of the Intercommunal Hospital of Steinfort, Dr Mark Ritzen, General Manager of the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Centre, Dr Gaston Schütz, General Manager of the Centre for Functional Rehabilitation, and Prof Guillaume Vogin, Medical and General Director of the Centre François Baclesse.

In the context of the development of a national system of compensation for on-site and on-call duty, the agreement thus provides for compensation for the availability of doctors according to the amended law of 8 March 2018 relating to hospital establishments and hospital planning as well as the Grand-Ducal regulation of 25 January 2019 determining the requirements and standards to be met by the hospital emergency services of hospitals and the national pediatric emergency hospital service.

The agreement thus covers the obligations resulting from the legal and regulatory framework in force falling under the responsibility of the respective hospitals, namely on the one hand the continuity of service, respected through on-site guards, and on the other hand, the on-call medical service, provided by on-call duty.

• The amounts of compensation for on-site duty during the week and during weekends, 24 hours a day, are set at €96 per hour.
• The amounts of compensation for on-call duty during the week, provided from 18:00 to 07:00, thus spread over a period of thirteen hours, are set at €40 per hour.
• The amounts of compensation for on-call duty during weekends and legal holidays, 24 hours a day, are set at €40 per hour.

The respective amounts of compensation are added to the payment of fees resulting from the acts performed and any increases for services performed at night, on Sundays and on public holidays.

In practice, the responsibility for the organisation of on-site and on-call duty rests with the managing bodies of the hospital establishments, to which the related budget envelopes will be paid directly and which will consequently ensure the compensation of the respective hospital doctors for the availabilities carried out.

During the official signing, Dr Philippe Turk, President of the FHL, welcomed this agreement which constitutes an important first step for the recognition and enhancement of hospital medicine, the cornerstone of health system. For patients in Grand Duchy, this is a significant step forward for the quality and safety of hospital care.

A support and evaluation committee is set up by this agreement and will meet shortly. This committee's mission is to ensure compliance with the provisions adopted and to continue reflection on any adaptations of legal texts required with regard to the on-site and on-call needs of the clinical services concerned in the interest of quality care and patient safety, and ensuring the sustainability of the national compensation system.