Increased basic staffing, shorter patient list, shorter working days, “North Sea rotation”, more time for patients and flexible solutions adapted to the individual doctor. These are some of the measures Senja municipality has taken to recruit new doctors. A short time ago, six of the GP positions in the municipality were filled by substitutes, because no qualified GPs applied for the positions. They have now managed to fill eight positions with permanently employed GPs. Because in the announcements for the last medical homes, they received 19 applications. – The doctors want livable working conditions and the possibility of family life. When we manage to recruit the doctors we need, we can also reduce the patient lists, says mayor Tom Rune Elisussen (Sp). Former mayor Tom Rune Elisussen. Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / news He believes that the recruitment video they made, where they showed the new working day for the doctors in Senja, has contributed to more people wanting to work there. This spring, the politicians also decided to give medical students up to NOK 300,000 in recruitment grants. The condition that the doctors commit to working for them for at least two years after completing their education. This means that both the mayor, the health management and the doctors believe they may have cracked the code on the GP crisis. – Patient crisis One of the newly appointed doctors is Hans-Olav Eriksen. He started this summer and is the incoming municipal chief medical officer. He comes from his job as municipal chief physician in Lyngen. He has also had the same job in two other municipalities in Troms. He describes the GP crisis as a patient crisis. – There is a crisis for people, especially in the rural areas. If you have a serious illness, it is important that your doctor knows you, that you are safe and that you get the follow-up you need. When you lack a GP, you also lack this security, he says. These are the measures Senja municipality is taking: Has increased staffing with three new doctors’ homes and increased the number of positions for assistants at the emergency room. Reduced patient lists. General practitioners can have up to 1,500 patients. In Senja, the doctors have between 700 and 800. Adapts the working day to the doctor’s everyday life, so that the doctors can work normal working days. Lets the doctors choose whether they want to be employed on a fixed salary or work as self-employed doctors. In Senja it is now about 50-50 of each. Offers doctors the opportunity for so-called “North Sea rotation”. That means four weeks on and four weeks off. Two of the new doctors will work in this way. Provides a recruitment grant to medical students of NOK 50,000 per semester in the last three years of study. The binding period is two years. Made a commercial that shows the measures in practice. He believes that the doctors also get the same security when they know their patients well. He describes the steps Senja’s politicians, administration and doctors have taken to recruit GPs as a security for both doctors and patients. – We adapt the positions to the doctors’ everyday life. You have the opportunity to work during the day, and not beyond the evening and night. We reduce the load on the emergency room, and not least, it is a structure that is adapted to the doctor’s wishes. Municipal chief physician Hans-Olav Holtermann Eriksen has just moved into his office. Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / news All eight new doctors are not all in place yet. But they will be within six to 12 months. With them, there will be 23 GPs in the municipality. – When will you dare to guarantee that all the inhabitants of Senja have a GP? – I strongly believe that Senja will have stabilized within a year. I am reasonably sure, but dare not guarantee, that we will have an offer for all residents within a year, he says. Want a life outside of work Elisabeth Skogheim has worked as a GP in Senja municipality for several years. She has been through periods where there have been hardly any applicants for vacant doctor jobs. She believes that the measures regarding doctors’ working hours have been important for the situation to have turned around. – It is important for us doctors to live a life outside of work. It is about being able to go home in the afternoon. And that we can deliver and pick up at nursery or school at normal times. It is important, she says. Municipal chief physician Hans-Olav Eriksen and GP Elisabeth Skogheim. Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / news Skogheim has worked as a GP since 2009. She says that the longer she has worked, the shorter the patient list has become. – That says something about the workload. Even if you become more skilled and can work faster, I have had to reduce my list. The amount of tasks has increased insanely in recent years, especially since the co-operation reform, she says. – The challenge is workload Nils Kristian Klev is head of the Association of General Practitioners. He is positive about several of the initiatives that Senja municipality has put in place, especially the opportunity to adapt everyday working life. – That’s what many people are concerned about, flexibility. It’s a great way to make the general practitioner profession attractive, that everyone doesn’t have to fit one mold, but that there is room for individual adaptation, says Klev. Nils Kristian Klev, head of the Association of General Practitioners, is positive about several initiatives from Senja municipality. Photo: Allmennlegeforening He is more critical of the measure aimed at medical trainees, and believes that binding can be demanding early in the career as life can quickly take a different turn than what one had imagined. The big challenge in many places, according to Klev, is the total workload. – There are many indications that it is entirely possible to get hold of doctors, but not without putting a little extra into the pot. Not necessarily money in itself, but greater flexibility, time for professional development and a manageable overall workload. It often requires a few more doctors than the municipalities have today, he says. The solution? Skogheim points out that it is at least as important to get doctors to stay in the job as to recruit new ones. – There is no point in recruiting 20 new doctors without them staying. The working conditions must be real and good. It must be possible to be a doctor, mother and football coach in Senja municipality, says Skogheim. Mayor Tom Rune Elisussen, GP Elisabeth Skogheim, Evy Nordby, business manager District Medical Center Midt-Troms and municipal chief physician Hans-Olav Eriksen. Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / news The mayor hopes they have now cracked just that code. He has faith that the eight new doctors will have a long working life in the municipality. – Do you think that Senja has found the solution to the GP crisis in Norway? – It is too early to say. We have made some moves. We will see in the long run whether we have succeeded. In any case, it is a good starting point for delivering the service that the citizens need, says Elisussen.
ttn-69
Senja municipality believes they have cracked the code on the GP crisis – news Troms and Finnmark
