At a doctor’s office in Skien, they are bombarded with letters with juicy offers. General practitioner Else Warren Nygård talks about active marketing from the temp agencies. The advertisements also appear in channels where GPs are active on the internet. – We are bombarded with advertising all the time. We are just a click away from changing jobs, she says. General practitioner at “Legene i Arkaden” and chief shop steward for the general practitioners in Telemark, Else Worren Nygård. Photo: Solfrid Leirgul Øverbø / news A few years ago there were no such advertisements, says the GP. Now she sees them daily. According to Nygård, they entice with all the benefits doctors want to get into the GP scheme. – On dark days it is tempting, says Nygård. Desperate municipalities These are good times for the temp agencies that provide GPs to desperate municipalities in crisis. news has previously told about Skjervøy municipality, which offers NOK 300,000 a week for a substitute doctor. We have also heard of temp agencies that lure Danish doctors with over NOK 200,000 a month. But it is not only Danish doctors who are lured. The General Practitioner’s Association receives a lot of feedback from members that temp agencies contact them with specific job offers. – They promise good conditions and are clear that it gives greater freedom, says leader of the association, Nils Kristian Klev. Leader of the Association of General Practitioners, Nils Kristian Klev. Photo: Allmennlegeforeningen – Like using slang The head of the Allmennlegeforeningen has the impression that the requests go out widely to GPs in Commune-Norway. – It’s a bit like going on a shopping spree somewhere and selling it back again for a higher price. If I were a leader in a municipality, I would be reasonably annoyed if you recruited from the doctors in the municipality, who in turn will need them as substitutes. Klev describes a crisis situation that only gets worse and worse. – We are in a situation where we lose doctors every week, he says. He believes the situation has created a market for commercial forces. – They want to go where there is a market and opportunity for profit. The impression is that there are more people who are “on” in this area than before. Klev believes that the municipality and the state have shared responsibility for the development. The state is responsible for ensuring that the GP scheme is adequately funded. At the same time, he believes that the municipalities have a responsibility to make it attractive for GPs to stay. Growing interest from GPs In a situation with several unfilled lists and high pressure, the GP service is completely dependent on good availability of substitutes, writes the Directorate of Health. They report that the use of temporary staff has increased from 2019 to 2021, among other things, the number of temporary staff days linked to unfilled lists has increased by 75 per cent. news has contacted several temp agencies used by Norwegian municipalities. Only two of them have responded. Managing director of the Danish VikTeam, Christian Hansen, says that they have not actively gone out to recruit GPs from Norway yet. – Until now, we have focused on Danish and Swedish substitute doctors. Going forward, we will also focus more on Norwegian doctors, as we are experiencing a growing interest. Managing director of the Danish temp agency VikTeam, Christian Hansen, says that they receive many inquiries from Norwegian doctors. Photo: VikTeam The employment agency says that there is a difference in how much the individual municipality is willing to pay for a doctor. Hansen emphasizes that they have no desire to push the prices up unnecessarily, as this could result in a negative focus on the temporary staffing industry. Temporary agency Dedicare wants to offer competent healthcare personnel who can provide good nursing and care. – We want to be a good and flexible supplement to the healthcare system. We want to fill gaps that arise in staffing as a result of illness, holidays, weekends and vacancies, says managing director, Bård Kristiansen. – Paying for the shirt More than 235,000 residents in Norway are without a GP. This is shown by a survey from the General Medical Association. And the substitute GPs rake in large sums across the country. – Unfortunately, many municipalities pay the shirt to ensure that they have GPs for their residents, says Gunn Marit Helgesen, chairman of KS. Both city municipalities and small municipalities are struggling to retain and recruit GPs, says chairman of KS, Gunn Marit Helgesen. Photo: John-André Samuelsen / news The GP scheme was initially to be financed by the state. Five years ago, however, the municipalities had NOK 400 million in expenses to secure the scheme. Since then, the bill has doubled, according to Helgesen. – We see that a number of municipalities bid above each other, because there are not enough GPs to get hold of. The KS leader believes that the work to strengthen the GP scheme is going too slowly. – It goes too slowly. There are already quite a few measures that can only be started, she says, and refers to doctors’ working conditions, list lengths and funding. – Has initiated several measures State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Care, Ole Henrik Bjørkolt, believes it is unfortunate if the health care system is depleted of personnel. – The challenges in the GP scheme have developed over at least 10 years, but we must take responsibility for solving the crisis, he says. State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Care, Ole Henrik Bjørkholt (Ap). Photo: Synne Lykkebø Hafsaas / news In the national budget for 2023, the government promises measures to strengthen the scheme. Bjørkholt says that it also involves measures to counteract further privatisation. – Among other things, we are working with various models for increased basic staffing and less temporary use in the health and care service.
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