Brussels neighborhood health center opens after two years
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
In Brussels, Belgium, officials recently inaugurated a Dutch-language neighborhood health center in the Noordwijk district, though it has been operating for two years.
The center aims to provide care for vulnerable populations in the area, where the number of general practitioners is 25 percent lower than the Brussels average. After opening, the center quickly registered over 2,000 patients. Doctors at the center hope to reach 3,000 patients from five nearby neighborhoods.
Noordwijk, Havenwijk, Oud Laken Oost, Oud Laken West, and Brabantwijk, by encouraging residents to seek primary care instead of going directly to the hospital. Many residents are unfamiliar with accessing initial medical care and often proceed directly to hospital emergency rooms. The Flemish Community Commission invested 565,000 euros in the center’s infrastructure and 65,000 euros in its initial launch.
The new center joins two other Dutch-language neighborhood health centers in Brussels, and officials are preparing new funding to support opening additional centers in the future, mirroring a system of more than 50 similar centers already available to French speakers in the city.
