Structural staff shortage
"More than 8 in 10 hospitals indicate that they are already reducing certain activities or will do so in the near future. Over 80 per cent indicate that they will close beds. This mainly concerns beds in the geriatrics, rehabilitation, intensive care and surgery services. "
" The reason for these downsizing and bed closures? Structural staff shortages. Two years of corona crisis and a labour market on fire are weighing on the healthcare sector. Vacancies go unfilled or staff are absent for long periods. "
" Half of hospitals are currently deploying interim and project staff to empty the worst needs. This is not a long-term solution
"Every sector in Flanders is crying out for more hands. Only working on the image and attractiveness of the profession will be insufficient. We must therefore take broader and structural measures."
"For example, we should increase the number of hours job students are allowed to perform," suggests Cloet. "Pensioners who still want to contribute should be able to do so flexibly, without being fiscally penalised. At the same time, it should be possible to employ more flexi-jobbers."
"The problems also present themselves at residential care centres. Just under a tenth of residential care centres are not taking on any new residents for the time being or are considering closing a ward for lack of staff "
What Miss Cloet is NOT saying :
hospitals and WZC have earned fat from the corona crisis. By R.D. no.10 of 19.04.2020, Minister of Health Maggie De Block, has allocated a budget of 1 billion euros PER YEAR for a period of 5 years ( until 31.12.2025 !!! ) to finance the hospitals. For the maintenance of their buildings and infrastructure in the context of the corona crisis, so they said, which during the first phase ( until the end of June 2020 ) translated into an automatic premium for the hospitals of 1,600 euros per day per corona patient and 800 euros per day for the WZC and at a later stage into a one-off corona premium per patient ( which also immediately led to the long hospital admissions of the past suddenly all becoming very short, max 1-3 days ). The Flemish government went a step further by decree and allocated an annual budget of 1.1 billion euro/year to the Flemish healthcare sector. Similarly until 31.12.2025 which brings the total annual subsidies to 2.1 billion euro. For 2020 2.1 billion, for 2021 2.1 billion, for 2022, 2.1 billion; for 2023...... .
Not a penny of all that money has become predestined for the salaried staff who worked themselves to death during the first wave. They had to make do with hand clapping and a white sheet hanging out the window in title of symbolic honour recognition. At the end of 2020, Frank VDB, in succession to Maggie, then made a gesture and decided to grant a one-off premium to salaried hospital staff of 800 euros gross retroactively. Self-employed nurses and organisations employing self-employed people, such as the White-Yellow Cross, were better off. They automatically received, with retroactive effect for the period of the first and later also the second wave, an extra payment per patient/day/delivered service, which provided many of them in July 2020 with an overall extra remuneration for the months of March and up to June 2020 of around 10,000 -12,000 euros (even though many had not had a single corona patient during the set period). This has angered many wage earners.
During the second wave, the salaried nurses complained that they were understaffed and urgently needed more staff, that they were overburdened with all kinds of additional administrative tasks such as issuing all kinds of certificates and that many of them could no longer cope with the work. Alexander De Croo visited UCL on 08.10.2020, heard their complaints and immediately afterwards addressed the RTBF camera saying that WE, the citizens, needed to relieve the care. It was our fault that the staff were through. He did not listen to the complaints of the care and nursing staff. No relieving of duties and no premium for the second wave nor the 3rd and 4th.
Frank VDB has not seen fit to invest in additional staff, better pay conditions and extra legal benefits for those who are salaried in 2020 and 2021. He also did not impose efforts on the hospitals and WZC that were getting sleepy rich from subsidies. The pressure on the shop floor intensified because, due to successive lockdowns and Frank's decision that all diseases and conditions that were not urgent should be deferred without date ( including cancers, tumours and surgeries ), many people did not get care when they needed it. Numerous doctors warned that this delayed care would lead to an unmitigated disaster and they were already seeing tumours and cancers much larger than usual at the time but that too was swept under the carpet. As soon as those patients did manage to get care back, it was all hands on deck. More work with fewer staff. That system had no choice but to collapse.
In the meantime, the witch hunt against healthcare staff began (also) with the threat of mandatory vaccination with an experimental product. Those who had previously worked themselves to death and let common sense prevail were suddenly the butt of the joke. They could no longer do anything right. In Brussels and Wallonia, resistance was strong. Over 30% did not want to be injected. In Flanders, resistance was less pertinent but still significant. And what did Frank do? Instead of facing up to the pressing problem and solving it, he cobbled together a bill that provided for and provides for the dismissal and revocation of the licence for all those who did not have themselves fully vaccinated by 1 April 2022 at the latest, a date that has subsequently been pushed back to 1 July 2022 and is now scheduled for even later in time. The law is coming, let there be no mistake about that.
So. what did the nursing and care workers who were put under severe pressure do ? They resigned or became ill and incapacitated for long periods of time. To cope with the shortage, hospitals hired interim staff, mostly from abroad through all kinds of agencies. It is true that this is a lot more expensive than a salaried employee. That is the price to be paid for disrespecting those who have turned their coffers to poor pay conditions.
Gradually, it was clear to everyone, including those in healthcare, that the vaccine did not do what was promised. 2 vaccinations did not protect against infection and contagiousness, the hospitals were full of vaccinated people. A watery attempt was made to convince the people to take a 3rd and then a 4th syringe. For care ? compulsory while the stuff still doesn't work at all. But Frank VDB continued his plans to make vaccination against Covid compulsory in healthcare unabated. The draft was submitted to the House for a vote with the result that more and more salaried nurses ( and meanwhile the self-employed who no longer want to have the 3rd and 4th syringes done ) also hoisted their sails and sought their source of income elsewhere.
The staff shortage that was already there was and is getting worse. Frank, in his incredible wisdom, thought that if he allocated a budget of 200 million euros to make the nursing profession a bit more attractive again he would solve the problem in 1-2-3. Not so. Why not? Because the threat of dismissal for all those who are not fully vaccinated still hangs over their heads.
What do we see happening now ? Hospitals and WZC are closing wards due to structural staff shortages. Healthcare is on its hiatus. We have 104 hospitals in this country with a total of 52,500 beds but with no staff, no services. Rehabilitation, intensive care and surgery ? Draw your plan. Unseen and unheard of in a civilised country like Belgium that will soon resemble the first banana republic in terms of healthcare provision ( and even then ... ).
Now, a normal reasonable person would think that Frank would have understood the lesson by now and will slow down to repair the damage he and Maggie have caused in seven hurries, right ?
Well no, not a hair on Frank's balding head thinks about that and neither does Miss Cloet ( who at the time of the vaccination campaign screamed blue murder that the syringe MUST ). Job students, flexi-jobbers and pensioners should solve the problem now. Seriously ???

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