– In the last 2-3 years, it has gone from being a minor problem to a major one.
So says Bente Aasoldsen, municipal manager for health and care in Porsgrunn municipality.
The problems with labor shortages and recruitment into the health and care professions have become worse. The mismatch between need and access to people is increasing.
Aasoldsen is the only one of the municipal managers with a budget of over one billion kroner.
Porsgrunn municipality has 2,707 permanent employees. The number of employees in health and care is 1,394. This is more than in the other three municipal areas combined.
In health and care, people work around the clock. The expenses make up nearly 40 percent of the municipality’s total gross expenses.
At the same time that the municipality is struggling to recruit staff for nursing homes and home services, the city council has imposed large savings. The fact that the number of elderly people will increase sharply in the coming years, with a curve that Aasoldsen says goes straight up, makes the situation even more difficult, and it is urgent to find smarter, accepted solutions.
– No use
– In recent decades, the increased need for health and care services has mainly been solved with increased staffing. From 2002 to 2018, the number of man-years in the health and care sector has grown by 56 per cent. Today we know that we already have a shortage of health personnel – it is therefore not useful to cover the need in the sector with increased staffing in the future, says the councilor and municipal manager.
In December, the city council asked for a trial project that deals with, among other things, basic staffing and the use of temporary workers. In the next meeting of the committee for health and care, Aasoldsen and her staff present “status retaining and recruiting health personnel”, a nine-page description.
It states that “the challenges of securing adequate funding and access to health personnel have long been described as one of the biggest societal challenges of our time”.
Aasoldsen says that the urban municipalities have experienced the challenges later than the districts, but things have evened out, the cities are also struggling.
– Previously, we had problems recruiting college groups. Now it is difficult to recruit ordinary skilled workers. We advertise positions and sometimes experience few or no relevant applicants.
Missing 500
On Tuesday, NAV published the Business Survey 2024. Labor shortages within health and social services are sky high above all other industries. Telemark alone is short of nearly 500 people in health and social services, according to estimated figures from NAV.
For several years, municipalities have invested in so-called welfare technology to solve challenges. It is not enough. Aasoldsen states that the award criteria for receiving services must be revised.
Cooperation with the voluntary sector is absolutely essential, and several services must be brought together, as in the new planned building at Mule, where a new emergency room and eventually the entire current St. Hansåsen local medical center will go in.
Aasoldsen also talks about alternative forms of living, about investing in staffed care homes at Borgehaven, more technology, and that relatives will have to contribute more in the future.
New plan
– We can do it as of now, but if we don’t make changes now, we won’t have enough people in three years, says the municipal manager.
In the new matter to the committee, the councilor insists that “the administration is asked to prepare a plan for how Porsgrunn municipality will retain and recruit health personnel in the future. The plan will be submitted to the committee for health and care no later than spring 2025”.
Aasoldsen started the new year with a saving requirement from the city council of ten million. There was an uproar when she proposed disbanding activists in nursing homes. In this way, the municipality was able to save 4.5 million. So far, no one knows what changes will be needed in the future to keep the wheels turning. It can be dramatic.
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The city council cuts property tax. This leads to a fall in income and stricter requirements for savings in other areas. Aasoldsen’s task is to tell the politicians the facts.
Listening
Are they listening to what you say?
– I find that they listen well.
NAV states this in the new survey:
– Like Telemark, on a national basis it is health and social services that show the greatest shortage of labour, with 13,805 people.
Aasoldsen believes that money is not the biggest challenge, but finding people.
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