Belgium's healthcare profession will soon add another specialism: practice assistants. They will offer support to doctors by taking on administrative tasks or taking and processing samples, among many other functions.
The Federal Government approved the new position on Friday, with Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke stressing that doctors "really need to be able to concentrate" on caring for their patients. He said that the work overload sometimes prevents this and hoped that practice assistants will reduce the burden.
Practice assistants can work in both a GP practice and a hospital, rehabilitation centre or residential care centre.
"With this function, we want to create extra contact time for doctors and patients, and ensure that nurses, in hospital or elsewhere, are not overstretched with administrative or logistical tasks," Vandenbroucke said.
"In this way, they will also be able to concentrate fully on patient care. I'm thinking, for example, of monitoring chronic patients who regularly visit the GP's surgery."
Administrative, but also medical focus
The first training courses for the new role will start in the autumn of 2024 and will last for a year and a half, of which six months will be internships.
Practice assistants will be defined as paramedics in legislation on care professions and can reduce the workload in practices and hospitals by helping out at reception or taking on certain administrative, logistical or IT tasks.
But they will also be trained to carry out essential protocol tasks under the doctor's final responsibility – most commonly taking and processing blood, Covid-19 tests or urine samples.
This measure also aims to attract new profiles into the healthcare sector; a so-called "bridge training" will then make it possible for practice assistants to advance to the nursing profession.
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"The new practice assistant profile will provide much better support for doctors. At the same time, it offers the possibility of moving more quickly and flexibly – with the necessary training – to other care profiles in short supply today," explained Vandenbroucke.
According to the minister, this is the only way to create an environment where doctors and nurses can have long and sustainable careers, with a good work-life balance. "We will only be able to meet this challenge if we firmly emphasise new cooperation with other profiles. The brand new practice assistant training course is part of this approach."
