Step 1 · Referral
Or direct contact.
The practice, in detail
Specialist practice, supplements and rooms, consent and second opinions, records.
Program 01 · A recognition
Specialist practice
A specialist title in Belgium is granted by the competent federal authority after approved training. It is a recognition, not a description a practitioner may adopt, and using one without it is prohibited. The recognition held appears on the legal page rather than as a loose claim here, which is the right place for it. Practising also requires the diploma, a visa from the federal health authority and registration with the Order of Physicians.
Step 2 · Consultation
History, examination, discussion.
Step 3 · Information
Purpose, risks, options, cost.
Step 4 · Consent
Freely given, after all of that.
Step 1 · The admission
Planned, where it can be.
Step 2 · The room
What each type means financially.
Step 3 · The declaration
Read, then signed.
Step 4 · The invoice
Matching what was chosen.
Program 02 · Before you sign
Supplements and rooms
Fee supplements may not be charged in a two-bed room or a common room, and that prohibition holds regardless of the treating doctor's agreement status. In a single room they may be charged within the hospital's limits. The financial consequences of the choice appear in the admission declaration you receive and sign before admission. It is worth reading rather than signing, because that one choice drives a substantial part of the eventual invoice.
Program 03 · Both encouraged
Consent and second opinions
Consent is only meaningful after you have been told the purpose, nature, urgency, duration, relevant counter-indications, side effects, risks and financial consequences of what is proposed, together with the alternatives including doing nothing. You are also entitled to seek a second opinion, and this practice does not discourage it. A practitioner made uncomfortable by that request is telling you something worth noticing.
Step 1 · The proposal
What is being suggested, and why.
Step 2 · The alternatives
Including doing nothing.
Step 3 · The risks
Stated, not minimised.
Step 4 · Your decision
Taken with time, if there is time.
Step 1 · Written
Properly, at the time.
Step 2 · Kept
As the law requires.
Step 3 · Accessible
To you, on request.
Step 4 · Confidential
Protected by criminal law.
Program 04 · Yours to see
Records and privacy
Patient rights legislation gives you a carefully kept record, a right of access to it and a right to a copy, along with the right to information, the free choice of practitioner, the protection of your privacy and recourse to a mediation service. Professional secrecy covers everything confided or observed and is protected by criminal law, which means it binds rather than merely guiding.
Need to contact the practice?
Fees are stated in advance on request. In an emergency, contact the emergency services.