23 MAY 2024.—Ministerial Decree establishing the special criteria for the recognition of medical specialists, internship supervisors and internship services in cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery and visceral surgery

Please find the full text in attachment. Below you can find highlights.

Recognition candidate specialists:

cfr Staatsblad / Moniteur Belge above. More news will follow at the time that the Recognition Committee is functional.

Recognition internship supervisors and services:

CHAPTER 4. — Special criteria for the recognition of the medical specialist,
The internship supervisors and the internship services in thoracic surgery

Art. 11.

§ 1. The candidate specialist may be recognised as a medical specialist in thoracic surgery after having followed a training
corresponding to at least six years of full-time training, of which three years of truncus communis surgery in surgery and three years of higher training in thoracic surgery.
Passing the evaluation of the training in truncus communis surgery is a condition for admission to higher training in thoracic surgery.
§ 2. At the end of the higher training in thoracic surgery, the candidate specialist has the competences referred to in
appendix 3 to this decision.

Art. 12.

The internship supervisor in thoracic surgery must be employed full-time (at least eight-tenths of normal professional activity) in the internship service and must devote most of his/her time to clinical, outpatient and technical activities in thoracic surgery.

Art. 13.

The recognition criteria for internship services in thoracic surgery are:
1° the internship service must offer a sufficiently broad range of thoracic surgery; in particular thoracic oncology;
2° the internship service performs at least three hundred thoracic interventions each year, of which at least sixty are anatomical resections;
3° the internship service has an adapted structure with a sufficient number of beds allocated to thoracic surgery.
These beds must be located in a hospital that has an adequate structure, more specifically a pneumology department and
an intensive care function. The internship service must be able to call on a laboratory for pathological anatomy with permanent services for frozen section examination, thoracic physiotherapy, pain treatment, bronchoscopy and advice on prevention and treatment of infections.
4° the internship service is responsible for the permanent training of the team;

5° the internship service has a system for quality control and assurance of the training. The quality and safety policy is sufficiently developed to enable relevant experiences for candidate specialists, as intended in the final competences of their specialism;
6° the internship service has the means to use training with virtual reality;
7° the internship service offers a framework that enables multidisciplinary discussion and collaboration.
Thoracic interventions are interventions that are performed on the thorax, excluding the placement of chest drains, biopsies or diagnostic procedures such as endoscopies.

Anatomical resections are the resection of an anatomical part of the lung, including the airway, vein and artery, pneumectomy, lobectomy or segmentectomy.

Art. 14.

The internship supervisor in thoracic surgery may train candidate specialists, provided that for each candidate specialist to be trained, the internship team has at least one other physician, recognized for at least three years in the same specialty, who works full-time (at least eight-tenths of a normal professional activity) in the internship service.

Art. 25.

§ 1. The internship supervisor and the internship service that, on the date of entry into force of this decree, have a recognition, will remain subject to the ministerial decree of 12 December 2002 establishing the special criteria for the recognition of medical specialists until the expiry of their recognition.
During a period of seven years after the entry into force of this decree, the recognition can be renewed under the conditions set out in the ministerial decree of 12 December 2002 establishing the special criteria for the recognition of medical specialists.

§ 2. The seniority conditions for internship supervisors and members of the internship team will not apply until nine and six years respectively after the entry into force of this decree.

§ 3. For a period of seven years after the entry into force of this decision, a recognized specialist in surgery may meet the requirements of supervision as determined in article 36, § 1, of the general criteria decision.

Recognition of active thoracic surgeons:

Art. 26.

§ 1. The specialist physician who, on the date of entry into force of this decree, has a recognition in surgery
based on the ministerial decree of 12 December 2002 establishing the special criteria for the recognition of
specialist physicians, retains his/her recognition.

§ 2. By way of derogation from Chapters 1 to 6, any specialist physician in surgery who is generally known as particularly competent and medically active in the specialty concerned during the last three years, preceding the date of entry into force of this decree, may be recognized as a specialist physician in cardiac surgery, specialist physician in thoracic surgery, specialist physician in vascular surgery or specialist physician in visceral surgery. Evidence that he/she is generally known to be particularly competent can be provided, inter alia, by means of a certificate, such as those from professional or scientific associations, as well as by means of personal publications, further training or other activities relating to the specialism concerned, including active participation in (inter)national congresses and scientific meetings.

The proof that he/she is medically active in the relevant specialism is provided by proof of a minimum average annual
activity of relevant surgical interventions over the last three years prior to the entry into force of the present decision:
2° for recognition in thoracic surgery: ten interventions in the field of thoracic surgery with a value equal to or higher
than N1000 and twenty interventions in the field of thoracic surgery with a value equal to or higher than
N600, according to the nomenclature of medical services established by the INAMI;

Proof of minimal medical activity cannot be provided by activities carried out during the training period. The application for recognition must be submitted within three years of the entry into force of this decision.

§ 3. The specialist in surgery can obtain recognition for one specialism in application of § 2.
To obtain an additional title outside the application of § 2, the provisions of article 3/1 of the general criteria decision
apply. At least half of the duration of the training must be realised.

Art. 27.

This decision enters into force on 1 July 2026.