On the eve of the general elections, the Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL) has presented concrete political demands for the country’s hospital and health sector by 2030. These include a strong digitalisation governance and programme, with a transparent and trusting data management approach.
In August 2023, the Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL) released a document with concrete political demands regarding the country’s hospital and health sector by 2030.
The text follows a white paper published by the FHL in February 2023 detailing its vision for hospitals and for the Luxembourg healthcare system for 2030.
The demands were sent to the country’s political decision makers on the eve of the general elections to be held on 8 October. The elections will determine the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and the future government of Luxembourg for the five years to come.
The FHL aims with the document to “specify the fields on which political actors will have to act in the coming months and years in order to continue the strategic development consisting of the hospital sector in particular and the Luxembourg health sector as a whole.”
The demands address six priority themes:
- Hospital medicine and its attractiveness;
- The identification, standardisation and optimisation of patients’ “care pathways”;
- The digital transformation of the Luxembourg hospital sector;
- Data management at the Luxembourg Hospital Federation;
- Planning, attracting, developing and retaining talent in the hospital sector;
- Funding for the hospital sector.
Among other requests, the FHL proposes to “support automation and digitalisation to reduce the administrative burden and to increase the time dedicated to the patient.”
It also requires “a resolute digitalisation of the health sector”, in order to “facilitate the exchange of information throughout the patient care journey”.
Data management for more transparency and performance
To develop the current health system in an ambitious way, the FHL recommends “the implementation of a global and integrated program of digitalisation of the health system, with an effective management and an adapted legal framework.”
One of the objectives of the digitalisation programme also aims to “structure the collection and standardisation of patient information and data, while ensuring cybersecurity and data protection (GDPR),” the FHL sees. It also recommends the “provision of the human and financial resources, which are necessary for the implementation of digitalisation.”
“Data management would increase the transparency and performance of the Luxembourg health system and improve its care and public health,” the FHL recalls.
This requires “the creation of a legal framework, which ensures data exchanges in accordance with European regulations,” the FHL adds. “It is also necessary to support the various actors of the health system in the implementation of digitalisation and in the management of change to ensure they follow this national project”.
The Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL) is the association representing the management of hospitals, clinics and care institutions. Its purpose is to defend their professional interests and “the achievement in all its forms of hospital progress to contribute in particular to the well-being of the patient”.
Established in 1948, and then formalised as an association in 1965, the FHL brings together all hospitals in Luxembourg (9,000 employees and more than 1,000 specialist doctors).
Last September the FHL held its first Healthcare Week Luxembourg.
“The national governance of digitalisation must be ambitious and must not forget anyone! That is the essential message”
Philippe Turk, President of the Fédération des Hôpitaux Luxembourgeois
Four questions for Philippe Turk (President of the FHL)
What is the primary objective of these demands addressed to politicians?
We want to prepare the healthcare sector and the hospital e-system for tomorrow. Major projects await us. For that we need the support of all stakeholders, and above all the support of political decision-makers.
The FHL positions itself as a unifying unit, one of its missions being to inform and guide policy makers on the vision and strategic developments of the Luxembourg hospital sector and the health sector as a whole.
What is the status of the sector’s digitalisation projects?
As part of its strategy to digitise the national health system, the government launched last June the Health Information System Luxembourg.
The programme aims to set up a national digitalisation governance of the health system and a national IT system unique to the hospital and non-hospital sector. This government decision is collective and concerns all ministries.
In the meantime, the Luxembourg national data service has been created. INCERT has also been commissioned by the Ministry of Health to pilot the general standardisation of hospital cybersecurity.
What is the status of the implementation of this national governance of digitalisation?
It is clear that the FHL claims a decisive place in terms of decision-making processes and work organisation. We have discussed the first proposals to organise this governance and the first organisational charts are now being discussed. I therefore think that the process will go very quickly.
In the coming weeks we will have the first very regular meetings of the working groups that will set up the operational component of the project. But we must first be clear: this governance must be ambitious and must not forget anyone! That is the essential message.
We are currently in the capacity building phase that sets up the structural and organizational foundations of this ambitious global digitalization project in the health sector.
Should the digital strategy remain confined to the hospital and health sectors only?
No: this digitalization goes beyond the framework of the Ministry of Health alone. Because everyone has finally understood that the field of health also affects the economic world, research, education, even start-ups…
Indeed, digitalization is not an end in itself, it must obviously first be useful to patients and health professionals.
But by producing quality structured data, it will also allow better management of institutions, better management of the health system for public health purposes, and secondary use of data.
The FHL is aware of the scale of the project, but it is ready to commit collectively by bringing all the energy and skills at its disposal.
