The number of operations that require you to spend the night in hospital is being cut. In future over 500 operations can be carried out on day patients and that’s a doubling of the current number. Elderly and vulnerable patients will still be able to spend the night in hospital if their doctor believes this is a good idea.
Health minister Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist) wants to encourage hospitals to perform operations on day patients without the need for an overnight stay. Patients spending time in hospital is costly for society and often it’s better to convalesce at home. There there is little risk of picking up hospital bacteria.
The list of medical procedures and operations that can be performed on day patients and no longer require an overnight stay has been increased from 246 to 551, though hospitalisation remains possible if necessary.
Procedures like appendix removal or fitting a knee prosthesis have become simpler making patients mobile far sooner than earlier. For many operations whether or not an overnight stay takes place becomes a personal decision taken in consultation with your doctor.
The number of procedures that can be performed at a day clinic is set to rise from 644,000 a year to 865,000. Surgical procedures that require hospitalisation should fall from 700,000 to 476,000.
Health minister Vandenbroucke won’t allow the change to be called a saving: the money not needed to pay for overnight stays will be required elsewhere in the hospital budget.
Fewer overnight stays also mean less work for nursing staff, especially at night and in the weekend. A greater use of day clinics is seen as a useful tool to combat bed and staff shortages.