The majority of the country’s regions are currently reducing their intake of temporary staff. This shows a survey made by TV4 Nyheterna. At the same time, every third region states that this affects patients, because the number of care places in hospitals must be reduced.
The healthcare association is critical and believes that patient safety is being compromised.
TV4 Nyheterna has contacted all of the country’s 21 regions and investigated how it currently looks like with the intake of temporary doctors and temporary nurses.
17 regions answer that they are reducing both contract nurses and contract doctors. 16 of the regions also state that they are currently continuously increasing the proportion of permanently employed doctors and nurses.
Consequences for patients
At the same time, this has consequences for the patients because every third region, seven of them, responds that the limitation on hired staff means that you are forced to reduce the number of care places.
– When we now try to phase out rental staff, there may be longer queues and waiting times for the patients, because we may be forced to make stricter priorities, says Anna Granevärn, director of health and medical care for the Jämtland/Härjedalen region.
Will you ever be able to do without hired staff?
– No I do not think so. We can reduce the proportion of hired staff quite sharply, but I think we will still always need to hire some doctors and nurses. For example, during holidays so that our regular staff can be free, says Anna Granevärn.
Too fast phasing out
The healthcare association is critical and believes that patient safety is jeopardized when the regions are in too much of a hurry with the phasing out of temporary staff.
– The queues are increasing, patients are not getting their operations on time and the waiting time at the emergency room will be longer. The risks for the patients are increasing, says Sineva Ribeiro, chairperson of the Health Care Association.