Flemish minister Gennez ends a young doctor's specialist training over patient safety

A first for a Flemish minister

On 5 November 2026, Flemish Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) removed a young doctor from his specialist training, saying patient safety had been compromised. The minister's office confirmed the news, and the decision is the first of its kind by a Flemish minister. Gennez said the doctor had repeatedly made serious mistakes and that patient safety was at risk, and she described such an intervention as very exceptional. The doctor contests the decision and has taken the case to the Council of State.

The training path and the complaints

The doctor graduated from KU Leuven in 2021. He spent two years in clinical biology before switching to pathological anatomy, the branch in which tissue samples or cells are examined for disease, for example to diagnose cancer. He trained at the University Hospital Antwerp (UZA) and, from October 2025, at ZAS Middelheim. His supervising professors listed fifteen cases with possible errors. Among them, tissue taken during an operation was reportedly analysed too slowly, so a patient stayed under anaesthesia longer, and a child's tissue sample was compromised after it remained there too long. The professors also cite an incident in which he reportedly turned up drunk on the ward, and a separate 'serious incident' that led to complaints filed with the prosecutor's office and the Order of Physicians, among others. The doctor and his lawyers dispute all of these allegations.

Two committees, opposing advice

The accreditation committee of the Department of Care unanimously recommended ending the training. The doctor objected before the Advisory Committee for Specialist and General Practitioners, where he and his defence pointed to positive placement evaluations and raised a series of procedural objections. That committee questioned how the termination had been reached and advised giving the doctor a chance to continue his training at another placement. Because the two bodies reached opposite conclusions, the final judgment fell to the minister, who chose to end the training permanently and pointed, among other things, to patient safety.

Calls for clearer procedures

The Flemish association of doctors in training, VASO, says a clear step-by-step procedure is needed for problems during specialist training, one that helps both hospitals and trainees raise concerns. Its chair, Judith Brusselmans, said the association had not known about the case beforehand.

“We were actually not aware of that case ourselves, so I was a little shocked.”

The same applies in the other direction, she said: when a placement fails to provide good supervision, that placement should be called to account and concrete measures taken. A termination procedure exists, but in the association's view it is not clear enough. VASO and the Department of Care are working to make it more objective.

“It is described somewhere, but it could be carried out more transparently and objectified.”

Differences between hospitals

Brusselmans said training experiences vary widely from one hospital to another. Trainees normally rotate every year or every two years, and the outcome can differ depending on where they are placed.

“The result of your training must not depend on the place.”

Such terminations are rare. According to figures from the Department of Care, seven specialist training programmes in Flanders have been stopped since 2017.

What happens next

The doctor's challenge is now before the Council of State, which will assess the decision. The minister did not follow the Advisory Committee's suggestion of a placement at another department.