– We perceive that the management both at Ahus and OUS take this seriously and follow up, says Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap) to Dagbladet.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Health was reprimanded by SV and Rødt for not taking clear measures after the staffing situation and restructuring processes have caused employees at several hospitals to press the alarm.
– It is difficult to understand that mass dismissals and shouts of warning from professional circles do not make an impression on the person who is ultimately in charge, said Rødt’s health policy spokesperson, Seher Aydar, to Dagbladet, among others.
Now Kjerkol is responding to the criticism.
Requires action: – Serious and urgent
– Our most important resource
– We must recognize that the hospitals will face significant recruitment and staffing challenges in the future, as the Health Personnel Commission has pointed out. Therefore, work to both recruit and retain professionals in the hospitals is very important, writes Kjerkol in an e-mail to Dagbladet.
Tuesday wrote NRK that the low staffing at Ahus causes the conservation officer to sound the alarm.
It’s after doctors have told of how they go home from work in tears, wish they were ill or to be hit with “lighter” injuries to escape the harshest guards.
– Gotta clean up
At the same time, it has ended in mass redundancies at the thoracic surgery department at Ullevål hospital over what is described as “long-term frustrations and great uncertainty” related to holiday closures, financial cutbacks and the planned merger of several heart and lung departments.
Kjerkol emphasizes that the professionals are our most important resource in the health and care service. At the same time, she points out that increasing challenges with access to qualified professionals require restructuring in the hospitals in order to continue to provide good and equal health services to the entire population.
– Work in progress
Kjerkol points out that it is the hospital management and the healthcare organizations that handle the various situations at their hospitals.
– Several redundancies ready
She continues by repeating the message that in the revised national budget the government will put forward proposals for compensation for the extraordinary wage and price increase, as well as propose NOK 2.5 billion in a permanent budget increase.
– In the enterprise meeting last Friday, the regional health enterprises were asked to consider how they should take this into account in operations and planning. This work is ongoing in the regional health organizations now, says Kjerkol.
– However, the budget is still tight and there will still be a need for restructuring in the hospitals, she concludes.
– Populist
Kjerkol is not alone in responding to the criticism from Rødt and SV. So does Labor’s health policy spokesperson in the Storting, Cecilie Myrseth, who points out that neither Rødt nor SV present any solutions to the challenge.
– The crises in the healthcare system cannot continue, so we must take action to ensure good healthcare for everyone in the future as well. Rødt and SV’s recipes are, strictly speaking, no recipe. We cannot grant or staff our way out of the crises, we have to roll up our sleeves and build a sustainable healthcare system, says Myrseth.
She defends her minister and points out that the health minister himself has not asked anyone to run faster, as SV and Rødt “somewhat populistically” claim.
– We must also take action to secure the health personnel’s everyday life. We are taking strong action against privatisation, measures for full-time work and division of tasks between different groups of health personnel – in addition to good technology and wise priorities. I invite everyone to help think of solutions. Also Red and SV, says Myrseth.
