A new survey of purchased nursing positions in the municipalities and health care companies shows the following: The municipalities spent NOK 1.76 billion on temporary staffing agencies in 2021. This is an increase of 44 percent from 2020. The health care companies spent NOK 647.7 million on temporary services in 2021. Adjusted for inflation the municipalities will spend 124 per cent more on temporary staff in 2021 compared to 2012. That is, more than a doubling in ten years, adjusted for price developments. The authors of the study write that the corona pandemic is not the main reason for the large increase in the use of substitute services. – We see that up to 30 per cent of the increase can come from infection numbers, they write. Head of the Norwegian Nurses’ Association, Lill Sverresdatter Larsen, says the figure is “a picture of the nursing crisis” and that the use of substitutes is not sustainable. – There is an enormous cost in relation to permanent employees, both for the patient and patient safety, and for the continuity of care, which is completely different with permanent employees, she says. Head of the Norwegian Nurses’ Association, Lill Sverresdatter Larsen, says that the use of substitutes is not sustainable. Photo: Jørn Inge Johansen / news – It is revealed that this is not fun Helge Eide is area director of KS (the organization for the municipal sector). – It reveals that you don’t do this because you think it’s fun to use temps, but because you have to, he says. He clarifies that temp agencies are a good and flexible tool to cover staffing needs in transitional periods, but that “more than half of the municipalities report that it is very challenging to recruit nurses”. At the same time, it has come to light that there are frictions between the health company and several temp agencies. Behind it lies a longer period of frustration over what is perceived as “unsightly” and “too much in progress” put forth by the temporary employment agency. In October, director Hilde B. Christiansen of Helse Vest sent a strong warning to all private agencies that have a framework agreement for the supply of temporary workers. The heading of the letter was “Aggressive recruitment and communication aimed at employees in healthcare companies.” – The government is concerned about the increased costs for healthcare companies linked to temporary work, says Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap). Photo: Kjetil Samuelsen / news Aggressive inquiries with lucrative job offers In the letter, it is claimed that permanent employees at public hospitals are being lured over with direct and lucrative job offers from the temp agency. Judging by the “golden edge” offer must be a salary in the millions, signing bonuses, free travel home and freedom of choice when it comes to working hours and tasks. The letter also states that suppliers seek out the professional meetings of healthcare companies in order to obtain professional personnel. – The professional environment is in the process of being torn apart from each other, says Christiansen, who in addition to being the director of Helse Vest, is the leader of a joint steering group for national agreements for temporary health personnel throughout the country. Following the sending of the letter, the parties have been invited to a meeting to summarize the situation. – We support the storehouse and recognize ourselves in the factual description that is shown in the letter, says Anita Mentzoni-Einarsen, HR director at Helse Nord. news has received a message with the same wording from Kai Kristiansen in Helse Midt-Noreg. – The health regions are well coordinated in this matter and share the concern that comes to light, says director of personnel and competence development in Health South-East, Svein Tore Valsø. – A result of cross-political indulgence over the years Anne-Karin Rime, president of the Norwegian Medical Association – This is a serious development. But the situation has not arisen in a vacuum. The growth in private health services is a direct consequence of insufficient investment in the public health service, which, among other things, has led to a shortage of health personnel. The private growth is a result of cross-party concessions over the years. We are always contacted by doctors who experience more and more challenges in the public sector. It is a cross of thought that there is too little time with the patients and a lack of opportunity for professional updates, which is their biggest concern. Private healthcare services can be a necessary supplement to the public one. In several areas, it also works as a useful relief. But if we are to counteract the “overbidding culture” that has arisen, investments in the public health service must receive a sustained boost. An internal municipal memo sounds the alarm that medical expenses for Norwegian municipalities “have exploded”. Photo: Håvard Nyhus – A certain “excessive culture” has existed for several years In an article in Fagbladet, several agency managers acknowledge that an overexciting culture has developed in the market for healthcare personnel. The trend must have started before the pandemic, but accelerated from March 2020 when the staffing crisis was a fact. – A certain “excessive culture” has existed for several years, but increased sharply during the pandemic where the demand for healthcare personnel was extreme, says Ole Sæther Løvik at the temporary employment agency Centric Care. He denies that they have a strategy to hijack permanently appointed health personnel from hospitals. – We want a good and long-term collaboration with the healthcare company, and see the importance of a close collaboration precisely to avoid this type of problem. But of course we cannot prevent healthcare personnel from applying for a job with us on their own initiative. – We will not actively seek to recruit employees employed by our clients Torbjørn Sørlie, HR and administration manager Reflekt Helse – We felt it was natural that the health organizations raised this serious problem with their contractual partners. We were and are confident that we and our employees did not in any way contribute to this problem, something we also made clear in our response to the Health Authorities. We internally informed all our staffing consultants about the issue, and have instructed our outsourced employees that none of our employees should actively seek to recruit employees employed by our clients. There is a great shortage of qualified healthcare personnel, which we, like all other employers, experience as a general challenge. We still do not feel that we are competing with the public sector for the same workforce, but are rather a supplement: A great many of our employees are employed in the public sector, and in addition, at their own request, take up positions in small fractions of positions with us. This contributed to flexibility and increased efficiency and profitability for both the employee, our clients (the public sector) and us. We do not have the solution to the major problems facing the healthcare system in relation to a lack of personnel. We are nevertheless convinced that the healthcare system is committed to maintaining access to flexible labor through temporary employment. We also know that many employees in the healthcare system want the flexibility of working with different tasks, both professionally, geographically and in terms of the working environment. We therefore believe that the public sector must maintain temporary employment in addition to direct recruitment/appointment, and that this must be regulated through framework agreements where the public sector either sets the price itself, or contracts are entered into with suppliers who offer the lowest price. Through increasing loyalty to the contract suppliers and delimiting non-contract rents at very high prices, the public sector will be able to cover its needs to a greater extent at a lower cost. Like the public healthcare system, we are experiencing ever-increasing competition for labour, where companies without framework agreements offer employees wages far above what we and other contract suppliers have the opportunity to offer, and then deliver to the public sector at prices far above the contractual frameworks we operates under. This must be delimited. news has previously written about temporary workers who are offered several hundred thousand a month, and in some cases several hundred thousand kroner a week. – The government is concerned about the increased costs. This summer, the government put forward proposals for tightening the regulations for hiring and letting from staffing companies. In the bill, which is now under consideration in the Storting, there is a limited exception for the hiring of health personnel. – The government is preoccupied with a strong public health service and is concerned about the increased costs for healthcare companies linked to temporary employment. Using a hiring agency is expensive, and it is not sustainable to pay almost double the price per man-year for important expertise, says Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap). She points out that the Health Personnel Commission must propose measures to train, recruit and retain qualified personnel in the health and care services. – It is a good thing that Helse Vest has put the housing issue on the agenda. For the government, it is a priority task to retain health personnel in the public health service.
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The health service spent NOK 2.5 billion on temporary workers – news Vestland
