The National Health Plan is a step in the right direction, but we need to keep a close eye on its implementation!

On June 28, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Social Security presented the National Health Plan (Plan National Santé – PNS), a long-awaited initiative to improve the health system in Luxembourg. In this context, the OGBL, the country’s largest trade union, would like to emphasize that it is essential to guarantee universal and equitable access to quality health care for all citizens of Luxembourg, with financing based on the principle of solidarity. In this respect, the government’s initiative is an important step towards strengthening our public health system, while at the same time modernizing it and adapting it to the needs of the population.

The plan presented by the government therefore focuses on strengthening the public aspect of the health system, which the OGBL welcomes, recalling that it is crucial to preserve and develop this core strength of our health system. It plays an essential role in ensuring that healthcare remains accessible and affordable for all. The public aspect of the healthcare system is also essential to ensure that the quality of patient care takes precedence over economic and commercial objectives.

In this context, the OGBL would like to warn against the populist arguments that are constantly being put forward in this pre-election period by the ultraliberal forces present in the sector and, even worse, by certain politicians, with the sole aim of outsourcing services and, consequently, commercializing our health and that of our relatives. Unfortunately, the negative consequences of such developments, which have been demonstrated abroad, are generally ignored by advocates of the free market. However, numerous studies show that, in the medium and long term, privatization trends in the health sector inevitably lead to a general deterioration in the working conditions of employees and in the quality of care. It would therefore be highly desirable for all the country’s trade unions to join forces to defend our public health system.

The OGBL would like to point out that, at a time when there is a shortage of human resources, the main objective must be to make the sector more attractive by improving working conditions in order to guarantee the best possible care for the most vulnerable members of society.

Attempts at privatization are contrary to the interests of both the workers and the patients, which go hand in hand.

The OGBL also recognizes the importance of collecting hospital data in order to assess the performance of the health system and identify areas for improvement. The availability of reliable and relevant data is essential for making the right decisions and implementing effective policies, as well as detecting potential abuse and fraud.

For the OGBL, however, the PNS should prevent pure data-hunting that focuses on the economic aspect rather than the quality of patient care. It is essential to ensure that data collection is used primarily to improve care and ensure a better quality of life for patients, rather than for financial gain.

The OGBL also points out that the global approach advocated and emphasized in the various strategic axes of the PNS is unfortunately not explicitly reflected in the one aimed at guaranteeing the availability of health professionals. For example, the PNS is silent on the fact that the existing differences in the working conditions of health professionals generate unnecessary internal competition, which is highly detrimental to the attractiveness of the sector by creating obstacles to the mobility of personnel within the sector. In order to remedy this situation, and thus harmonize and improve the working conditions of those who will have to put this project into practice, it is imperative that public investment be made available for this purpose. This would clearly help to reduce existing inequalities and promote equal rights and opportunities for all health professionals, and would eventually allow for the implementation of a single overarching collective agreement for the entire sector.

Overall, the PNS is a step in the right direction. The OGBL therefore calls on the current and future governments to ensure that the proposed measures do not end up being superficial reforms, but that future reforms tackle the deep problems of the Luxembourg healthcare system head on.

The proposed axes should thus serve as a solid basis for the implementation of concrete measures to be developed together with the social partners in order to improve the quality of care and meet the needs of the population.

In any case, the OGBL is ready to work with the government in this direction in order to guarantee a solid, public and equitable health system for all citizens in Luxembourg.

Press release of the OGBL
July 3rd, 2023