When the board of Helse Nord met on Wednesday for the penultimate time this year, the agenda consisted, once again, of the following: Budget gap, staffing crisis and too long queues. The numbers speak clearly. Every month, Helse Nord lacks almost a thousand full-time employees. Tonje Hansen, special adviser at Helse Nord, tells news that the staffing challenges are great throughout Helse Nord. – Therefore, we have to use a good deal of hiring, and not least overtime and overtime on our own employees, to fill gaps in duty schedules. It costs money for the healthcare institutions, which are already facing large deficits in 2023. So far this year, Helse Nord has spent NOK 385 million on hired labour. Large proportion of hires at all hospitals The report presented to the board of Helse Nord on Wednesday shows that it is the hospital in Tromsø that has the largest consumption of overtime and hires: 243 monthly workers on average each month up to and including September this year. But also in the small hospitals in the north, hiring accounts for a large proportion. This is in stark contrast to what a number of social debaters have claimed recently. Tonje Hansen at Helse Nord understands that local politicians and hospital staff want to defend their local hospital. – That is why it is important that we can present documentation that is unbiased in relation to geography and where you live, she says. She emphasizes that even the small hospitals have major challenges in obtaining enough professionals. – It will always be the case that a large hospital needs many more than a small one, but the figures presented today show the percentage of staff who are missing. That says something about the vulnerability of the operation. – Not better in large hospitals On the Debate on news last Thursday, Hilde Hovde, the woman behind the petition “No to the closure of the hospital in Lofoten”, asked the following question to Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol: – Have you gone into the details, for example in Lofoten, where There is actually no lack of personnel? They don’t have a problem filling positions there. Hilde Hovde started a signature campaign against the closure of Nordlandssykehuset Lofoten. Photo: Vilde Bratland Erikstad / news But the figures from Helse Nord show that the hospital in Lofoten – where it is proposed to close the emergency department – covers one in ten positions with hire and overtime. For doctors in somatic departments, the share of hire is almost 30 per cent. Hovde tells news that her statement is based on figures from the hospital’s chief physician Robert Hammer. Hammer replies that he has never tried to claim that subcontracting and overtime are not used at the hospital, and that the picture painted in the Debate last week was not entirely correct. Robert Hammer – chief medical officer Nordlandssykehuset Lofoten. Photo: Vilde Bratland Erikstad – The point is that there is nothing better in the big hospitals, but the percentages quickly become high in small hospitals with fewer employees. He points out that the picture is the same in Vesterålen, which may have to take over patients from Lofoten in the future. There, too, the proportion of rent is high, over eight per cent. – Don’t recognize us Also the hospital in Narvik, which is under the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN), is threatened with the closure of its emergency department if the working groups’ proposal is adopted. In Narvik, an average of 38 full-time employees are missing each month, according to Helse Nord figures. This amounts to approximately seven percent. Mayor of the municipality, Rune Edvardsen (Ap), told news at the beginning of November that the lack of professionals did not apply in Narvik. Mayor Rune Edvardsen (Ap) in Narvik. Photo: Frida Brembo – Here we follow the budgets and have enough professionals, but we also understand that this applies to other places in UNN, especially in Tromsø. When news contacts him to ask about the statement, he refers Jon Harr to senior physician at UNN in Narvik. Harr also took part in the Debate last Thursday, where, when asked about the staffing of the maternity services, he said that they have no staffing problem in Narvik. – We do not recognize ourselves in the figures from Helse Nord, says Harr to news when he is presented with the figures. Senior doctor Jon Harr at the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Narvik. Photo: Henrik Einangshaug / news He thinks part of the explanation is that being called out from home is paid as overtime, and that many local hospitals are equipped with home care arrangements. The head doctor says that union representatives at the hospital have surveyed vacancies in all departments in somatics, and that there are only 2.75 per cent unfilled positions. – What I answered in the Debate was about the maternity ward. We have no vacancies there in Narvik, and it is the department that has now been proposed to be converted into a delivery room. 80 per cent hire There are two groups of professionals in particular that Helse Nord is struggling with recruitment, explains Hansen in Helse Nord: Radiologists, i.e. X-ray doctors, and psychiatrists and psychologists. The hospital in Lofoten covers 80 per cent of its need for radiologists with hired labour. Because the hospital is small, it only accounts for one to two positions. Both in Mo i Rana, Vesterålen and Hammerfest, the proportion is over 40 per cent. – Perhaps that discussion has not been so prominent? – We have tried to be clear that we have huge challenges in fulfilling the services we are required to deliver to patients, especially in mental health care, and also diagnostic services. It also means that we struggle to provide equal patient care to people throughout the region.
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– Shows vulnerability in operations – news Troms and Finnmark
