Debate, the O6 mayors | The personnel challenges in the health sector in Northern Norway require comprehensive solutions

The six largest municipalities in northern Norway (Alta, Tromsø, Harstad, Narvik, Bodø and Rana) all have a critical shortage of health personnel. This results in large costs for overtime and the purchase of temporary services from private actors, and it is a critical challenge for economic sustainability.

The challenges of retaining and recruiting health personnel are greatest in Northern Norway. Both small district municipalities and large city municipalities are fighting for manpower, expertise and the necessary investment in service development. This fight costs money, and there is no financial coverage for it. But we must win it in order to maintain a reasonable level of the municipalities’ statutory health services.

Cheaper to prevent than to repair

The main reason for the crisis is a rapidly increasing number of elderly people at the same time as our younger citizens have a rapidly growing need for services. The biggest growth in expenses is now happening among the younger people, and research shows that the 5% of users with the highest costs account for almost 40 percent of the total costs for municipal nursing and care services. The costs of care services will double every 7 years if growth continues at the same rate as now.

All six of the largest municipalities in Northern Norway are also host municipalities for the specialist health service, and we are experiencing increasing competition for the health personnel available. There is a need for better collaboration with Helse Nord on how the challenges of the future are to be solved, both with regard to the recruitment of health personnel and in the distribution of responsibilities and tasks. The specialist health service does not only form a strong professional community around the region’s hospitals. It also constitutes a strong community of interests with great political attention. The municipal health service focuses more on prevention and public health, and this traditionally receives less attention and resources than repair. It’s a shame, because it’s cheaper to prevent than to repair. We need a stronger political focus on prevention and public health

The temp market is out of balance

We would like to emphasize that we are dependent on temp agencies to ensure proper services, but we are now experiencing a market completely out of balance. We need new solutions that enable temp agencies to once again be a supplement to our services, rather than an unplanned part of our joint healthcare services. All of these are challenges that are the municipalities’ responsibility, but which the municipalities cannot solve alone.

It is urgent to put sustainable solutions in place, especially in Northern Norway where the battle for labor is already going on in full force. Fewer residents of working age combined with an increased need for labor for many of society’s most important tasks – the green shift, defense and social security, energy and health and care – give the region special challenges.

It is crucial that national authorities contribute to a greater extent to the necessary framework conditions, income system, sufficient educational capacity and joint digital solutions. In addition, there is a need for the tripartite collaboration to provide increased room for action in relation to working time arrangements.

The government must step in

Common good solutions in the north will be able to be used throughout the country as the battle for labor escalates in several places. The issues are thoroughly explained in the Health Personnel Commission’s report, and as mayors in the six most populous municipalities in Northern Norway, we want to take an initiative to achieve comprehensive solutions in collaboration with state authorities, regional health organisations, employer and employee organizations and across municipal boundaries . As a direct follow-up to the Health Personnel Commission’s report, we want to contribute with solutions in a part of the country that has a major shortage of qualified labor in many sectors. The challenges are great, the municipalities cannot solve this alone, now the government must step in.