Strong local interdisciplinary collaboration networks in Belgium

On the 14th March 2020, the emergency plan for family practice started in Belgium. This means that Belgian family doctors cannot see as many patients as before: only urgent consultations, triaged so that no patient has to sit in the waiting room. As a family doctor, I now see one patient every 40 minutes which allows sufficient time to advise other patients by telephone. For the first few weeks this was very difficult. In addition, we triage coughing patients for the GP cooperative (history, listening to lungs, checking vital parameters, including oxygen saturation) and decide if these patients must go to hospital or not. All healthy GPs work together in these physical triage posts to reduce the workload of the emergency services.

Publication year:2020

Keywords:Newspaper/Magazine/blog article

Accessibility:Open