Arkin, the largest mental health provider in the Amsterdam region, has similar problems. There are also many vacancies there. Arkin has almost 170 vacancies for healthcare personnel, as well as nurses in addition to coordinating practitioners.
Arkin has seen an increase in the number of referrals since the start of the corona crisis. In 2020 by six percent compared to 2019, in the first half of this year by nine percent compared to the same period last year. It especially applies to patients with complaints due to trauma, severe anxiety or mood disorders and eating disorders.
For the latter two patient groups, Arkin applies selection to the referrals, says a spokesperson. This is to ensure that the most serious patients are treated as well as possible.
Because some of the patient contacts have fallen due to corona measures, the waiting lists have also increased.
More and more vacancies
Branch organization The Dutch GGZ says that the picture that Parnassia and Arkin paint with regional differences applies nationally. The organization has no current figures.
In 2018, De Nederlandse GGZ published figures on the job market in the mental health care. It forecast significant and rapidly increasing staff shortages for 2020. In all mental health subjects, the deficits in that prognosis increased by 70 percent or more compared to 2018.
For example, the trade association estimated the number of vacancies for psychiatrists at 480, for GZ psychologists at 950 and for clinical psychologists at 150. In 2020, 2290, 6810 and 1780 people were employed in these subjects respectively.
The number of vacancies for nurse specialists, HBO nurses and MBO nurses also increased to almost 2,500. In the nursing professions, about 18,500 people were employed in mental health care institutions.
Vacancies outside the Randstad turned out to be even less easy to fill than in the Randstad, certainly for psychiatrists.
In June of this year, the Capacity Body – which advises on the number of training places in the medical sector – published a labor market monitor for 2020. The publication could not be found at the Capacity Body, but according to an article in Medical Contact on 1 January of this year, there were 332 vacancies for psychiatrists, about half of which had been open for a long time.
Previous NOS research
At the end of 2017, the NOS conducted a survey into the number of vacancies for psychiatrists at mental health institutions. There were 663 at the time. These were not caused by a shortage of psychiatrists, but because supply and demand were not attuned to each other.
Many psychiatrists preferred to work in their own practice, with much less administrative burden, no annoying weekends, evening and night shifts and often less complex patients.
Even then, vacancies in the Randstad turned out to be slightly less difficult to fill than outside the Randstad.
Training places
More people need to be trained in order to do something about the staff shortages. This certainly applies to GZ psychologists. Someone who is a basic psychologist can specialize as a health care psychologist and then as a clinical psychologist.
The need for training places for GZ psychologists is increasing year after year. However, the number of places that are actually becoming available is declining. This has to do with financing by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
In 2019, 20 percent of the requested training places for GZ psychologists became unavailable because the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport did not provide funding. In 2021 this had risen to 40 percent and in nursing home care even to 56 percent.
The need for GZ psychologists is therefore increasing, but fewer are being trained.
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