The Federal Center of Healthcare Expertise (KCE) recommends the creation of recognized endometriosis clinics and specialized centers of expertise, in its report published Thursday on the management of this incurable disease in Belgium.
Between one and ten women in 100 are affected by endometriosis, which is characterized by the presence of tissue similar to the uterine lining (the endometrium) outside the uterus. This results in abnormal menstruation, pain or even difficulty getting pregnant. In Belgium, 162 hospitalizations per 100,000 women are recorded each year for endometriosis and adenomyosis, a related disease.
Requested by the Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, the KCE study should serve as a scientific basis for improving care. She therefore suggests several avenues such as the creation of multidisciplinary endometriosis clinics in each hospital network. It also supports the establishment of specialized reference centers to concentrate and increase specific surgical expertise in teams for the most serious cases requiring an operation. The KCE report also calls for increased awareness among the medical profession.
Frank Vandenbroucke will request the establishment of a working group to establish an action plan and a timetable by mid-May, he said on Thursday. It will be composed of the two presidents of the Inami Medical Technical Council, four representatives of the Royal Belgian Society of Gynecology, as well as two representatives of the general medicine federations CMG and Domus Medica.
This working group will have to look into ways of measuring the quality of care and the conditions to be met by centers to be recognized as clinical and of expertise. It will also have to make a proposal for the development of new nomenclature numbers providing for appropriate remuneration for endometriosis procedures and multidisciplinary consultations, limited to endometriosis clinics and reference centers.
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