In summary, Helse Midt-Noreg will terminate the agreement with private psychological services in June. Helse Møre og Romsdal must therefore employ around 25 psychologists, specialist consultants and doctors before the summer. There is concern that the termination of the agreement may lead to longer waiting times and that patients will not receive help at the right time. Private actors believe that the healthcare industry will have major challenges in recruiting so many professionals in a short time. The Norwegian Health Insurance Corporation believes that there is a risk that waiting times will increase for a period of time. Helse Midt-Noreg believes that the public healthcare system can do the job just as well as the private actors, given the right access to personnel. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Møre og Romsdal is one of the worst areas, with the longest waiting times for children and young people who need help in psychiatry. There has also been great pressure in adult psychiatry. In order to get rid of the long queues and constant deadline breaches, agreements were signed with private actors in 2022. It is now known that the agreements will be concluded in June. As a result, the healthcare company must acquire around 25 psychologists, specialist consultants and doctors over the next five months. Concern for the patients Vebjørn Leite Olsen, deputy head of Youth Mental Health, fears that the termination of the agreement will harm the patients. – We are afraid that there will be longer waiting times and that patients will not get help at the right time, says Olsen. He believes that no signal has been given that the hospitals themselves will increase their capacity, now that the agreements expire. He also fears for recruitment. – It is naive to think that those who work in the private sector will automatically switch to the public sector, says Olsen. Vebjørn Leite Olsen is deputy head of Mental Health Youth. He is concerned about the consequences the concluded agreements will have for the patients. Photo: private – Zero chance of recruiting so many Managing director of Medi3 in Ålesund, Jan-Terje Teige, says that the message came like lightning from the blue. They have made offers to 800 patients a year and do not understand the logic in terminating the agreement. – Having private agreements has been a very important means of avoiding long waiting times, says Teige. Medi 3 has used large resources to build up the offer and has 22 therapists within mental health care. Jan Terje Teige in the private health service Medi3 believes that the health company will struggle to recruit new psychologists. Photo: Mia Sofie Ytreberg / news Teige does not understand how the health insurance company is now going to manage to recruit so many health personnel before the summer. – They have no chance. There are five months until they have 25 professionals in place. They are a scarce resource and it is demanding to build up a functioning team, says Teige. – Don’t understand anything The psychological center “Unicare Coperio” established itself in Molde because of the cooperation agreement with the health care authority. They understand nothing of the termination of the agreement. – We have also not received any good justification as to why the contract has been terminated, says head of department Lill Tove Gimnes. She believes that they have done a good job and accepted all the referrals they have received, and they have also increased the intake of patients by 50 per cent to meet the need. – We have enough patients and staff. We have had a good relationship and collaboration with Helse Midt, says Gimnes. Now the psychological center in Molde has to think again since parts of the patient base are disappearing. In Trøndelag, too, the health authority has an agreement with private parties. Gimnes says that colleagues there are just as uncomprehending about the decision. Can risk longer waiting lists – Both Medi3 and Unicare have done a very good job together with us. At the same time, we see that we have not been able to achieve the goals we had, i.e. to reduce waiting times sufficiently, says Ståle Hoff, head of the clinic for mental health and substance abuse at Ålesund hospital. He emphasizes that they focus on providing good treatment and solutions to patients, and says they will now work on building up the public service. – I think that will benefit the patients in the long run. At the same time, I think we can risk over a period that waiting times will increase. And I will regret that. But we will work to ensure that it has the least possible influence on the patients. At the same time, he admits that it will be difficult to get hold of enough psychologists to manage to take away all the patients. – For us, this means that we must now focus even more heavily on recruitment, as well as retain those who are already in the service. And of course I know that it is challenging. In Helse Nord-Trøndelag, the consequences will not be as great, because they have not used the private provision to the same extent. This is according to Arnt Håvard Moe, Head of the Clinic for Mental Health Care and Addiction. Ståle Hoff, clinic manager for mental health and substance abuse in Helse Møre og Romsdal. Photo: Øyvind Sandnes / news Want to do the job themselves Director of Communications in Helse Midt-Noreg, Eiliv Flakne, says they probably do not continue the agreements with the private players because they think the public healthcare system can do the job just as well. – The private sector delivers on the mission, we are very satisfied. But we see that we can do it just as well ourselves, with the right access to personnel. So then it is logical to look at whether it is not better to resolve this within the public sector. But how will the healthcare company manage to recruit so many new professionals? – It is clearly a demanding situation. This is the dialogue with the health company, but I cannot go into that process now. But we have good hope that this will be resolved, says Flakne. He says that, at the same time as they have had cooperation with the private sector, they have taken measures to reduce deadline breaches and waiting lists. – We think we have this under control. We will have a focus on mental health care, this is also the case nationally. And we have high hopes that this will go well.
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Have to hire 25 new psychologists and professionals before the summer: – Fear of longer waiting times
