In September 2016, the Ministry of Health presented a new bill on hospital planning. Its content is based on a detailed hospital inventory constituted by LIH: the “Carte Sanitaire 2015”.

The “Carte Sanitaire 2015” (Health Card), is a complete inventory of all hospitals in Luxembourg, their services, resources, equipment and bed occupancy. The inventory and activity analysis provides a detailed overview of the national hospital sector enabling the Ministry of Health to carry out an up-to-date assessment of national health needs in terms of number of hospitals, beds and services. The “Carte sanitaire 2015” mainly serves to establish the hospital plan, but is also an informative document for hospital directors as well as for the broad public.

The Ministry of Health requested LIH’s Department of Population Health to carry out an update in a concise form of the “Carte Sanitaire 2012”. Anne-Charlotte Thomas, scientific collaborator, was the project leader for editing the report together with the biostatisticians Dr Valéry Bocquet and Sonia Leite. The new “Carte Sanitaire” is composed of three documents: the main document, a fascicle on Luxembourg’s hospitals and a fascicle on the recourse to hospital treatment according to the International Classification of Diseases.

In the last 30 years the number of hospitals has decreased in Luxembourg. Whereas there were 36 in 1986, the “Carte Sanitaire 2015” recorded only 12. This decrease is due to several mergers and to the conversion of some hospitals to institutions for long-term stays. Hospital stays increased by 2.3% per year between 2002 and 2013, with more and more people using day hospitalisation (36.7% of all admissions in 2013). The average duration of hospitalisation remained stable between 2002 and 2013 with 7.3 days in 2013.

The report shows that the rapid growing of Luxembourg’s population needs to be considered for optimal hospital planning. Interestingly the ageing of the population is less pronounced in Luxembourg (14.1% of people aged >65) than in the neighbouring countries (17.7% in France, 17.8 % in Belgium and 21% in Germany). Yet, the admission of elderly people increased by 3.5% per year between 2002 and 2013. At the press conference presenting the new bill, the Minister of Health, Mrs Lydia Mutsch, pointed out that the hypothesis of a steady 2.4% population increase per year leading to 650.000 residents by 2025 was taken into account for hospital planning.

Links to “Carte Sanitaire 2015” on the Health Portal website (in French):

Main document

http://www.sante.public.lu/fr/publications/c/carte-sanitaire-2015-principal/index.html

Fascicle 1 - 2015 update: Hospitals in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

http://www.sante.public.lu/fr/publications/c/carte-sanitaire-2015-fascicule1/index.html

Fascicle 2 - 2015 update: Recourse to hospital treatment according to the International Classification of Diseases

http://www.sante.public.lu/fr/publications/c/carte-sanitaire-2015-fascicule2/index.html