Federal government and French community reach agreement on doctors quota after 25 years | Inland

Quotas for doctors and dentists have been causing Community squabbles for 25 years. In principle, the federal planning commission determines how many medical students can graduate each year in Flanders and French-speaking Belgium, but in the south of the country more students have been graduating for years than agreed. Flanders subsequently decided last year to ignore the quota itself.

The agreement means that in French-speaking Belgium there will be an entrance exam with a numerus fixus, as already exists in Flanders. Because this must be anchored by decree, the entrance examination for the next academic year will still take place under the previous rules, without a predetermined number of students who may start the study programme. But the French community compensates for this in the entrance exams of the following three academic years, Vandenbroucke assures.

The federal planning commission sets the quota through a mechanism that takes into account the need for more general practitioners, juvenile psychiatrists and other bottleneck specializations, although the division between specialties remains a competence of the communities. The quota also takes into account the surplus of doctors who have graduated in recent years, Vandenbroucke assures. In 2028, 744 doctors will be allowed to graduate in the French community and 1,104 in Flanders.

The Flemish government is not joining the agreement for the time being. According to Vandenbroucke, he first wants a guarantee that the French community will implement the plans effectively.