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HEALTH

Denmark struggles to recruit nurses despite government promising 1,000 more

Although the government has promised to increase the number of nurses in Denmark, the challenge of recruiting requisite numbers is growing.

Published: 18 November 2019 17:05 CET
Denmark struggles to recruit nurses despite government promising 1,000 more
File photo: Linda Kastrup/Ritzau Scanpix

In 2018, then-opposition leader Mette Frederiksen promised that she would increase the number of nurses by 1,000 by 2021 nationallly.

But the total number of nurses working within the Danish public health system has decreased by 473 ‘working years’ over the past 12 months, broadcaster DR reported on Monday.

The figures in the DR report come from the Danish Health Data Authority (Sundhedsdatastyrelsen). A ‘working year’ (årsværk in Danish) equates to the total working hours of one full-time staff member for one year.

Frederiksen’s Social Democratic party promised in its campaigning for the 2019 general election to hire 1,000 more nurses for the health system as soon as possible.

The proposal for next year’s budget sets aside 300 million kroner for hiring nurses – funded in part by raising the price of cigarettes.

Helle Dirksen, who is head of the Danish Nurses' Organization (Dansk Sygeplejeråd), told DR that the government already has catching up to do if it wants to fulfil the election promise.

“We are starting from less than zero. I assume that the missing nurses will be added to the 1,000 by which we are already short,” Dirksen said.

Those comments appear to be supported by Kjeld Møller Pedersen, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Department of Public Health, who said that finding so many extra nurses represents a challenge for the government.

“It’s not as though there are 500 unemployed nurses. I think they are in demand in municipalities and in general practice,” Pedersen told DR.

Minister for Health Magnus Heunicke admitted that Denmark faces a bigger challenge than expected in increasing the number of nurses working within the health service.

“The new figures show that, whilst we have been discussing this, things are moving in the wrong direction,” Heunicke told DR.

The Zealand administrative health region is cited as having seen a particularly sharp loss of nurses, with 155 working years’ less workforce in the second quarter of 2019 compared to 2018’s third quarter.

That is due in part to a large number of redundancies last year, DR writes.

“If it’s possible to let so many nurses go, then it must also be possible to get the number to go in the other direction,” Heunicke told DR.

The minister noted that financing for the new nurses was still under negotiation, with the budget still at the proposal stage.

READ ALSO: What Denmark's new budget proposal means for foreign residents

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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