The Ministry of Health and Care has received a letter from the European authorities after more than 130 doctors notified a lawsuit against the state. But the parties completely disagree about the meaning of the letter.
Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol believes that the Norwegian Directorate of Health cannot recognize the Danish doctor’s rotation. Now the matter has taken a new twist. Photo: Hanna Johre / NTB
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– The government has to wake up and clean up. The longer time passes, the greater the consequences.
That’s what Sigurd Stette says. He is group leader for the doctors who are suing the state.
At the end of July, Aftenposten wrote about 130 doctors and medical students who filed lawsuits against the state and the Directorate of Health.
The group believes that the Directorate of Health is breaking the law when they do not approve the Danish rotation training for doctors who will work at home in Norway.
Now the matter has taken a new turn.
Now the Ministry of Health and Care has received a letter from EftasEftasEuropean Free Trade Association monitoring body ESA.
Fact
Therefore, 130 doctors are suing the state
In Norway, doctors get their specialization by applying for positions called Doctor in specialization 1, 2 and 3 (LIS 1, 2 and 3). This denotes three different positions at the levels below senior physician. The positions were introduced in the period 2017 to 2019. LIS1, the first level, has replaced the old rotation system. The content has not changed, but the content is documented differently. In Denmark, newly qualified doctors work for a year’s rotation in a so-called basic clinical education (KBU). It is the first position in a three-step ladder below senior physician. The Directorate of Health believes this does not correspond to a corresponding part of the Norwegian course. The dispute is about whether to approve the Danish KBU as part of LIS1. The health authorities think no. This means that even experienced doctors who have been trained and have worked for several years in Denmark, among them many Norwegians, cannot continue to specialize in Norway. Instead, they have to start over with the LIS1 rotation in Norway. The doctors find this unattractive. It stops career opportunities in Norway if they do not take a “double rotation” by completing LIS1 at the same time as they already have Danish KBU, they claim. Show more
The background to the case is that hundreds of Norwegian doctors who have been trained in Denmark must go through a so-called “double rotation” in order to work as doctors in Norway.
This is because the state considers the one-year Danish rotation education (KBU) to be basic education. They do not recognize it as part of the specialist education, so-called LIS, in Norway.
Doctors trained in Denmark must therefore start again at the first level (LIS1) if they wish to become a doctor in Norway. LIS1 has a duration of 18 months.
This means that doctors lose both time and money. At the same time, they have to complete a rotation for which many consider themselves overqualified.
This happens at the same time that over 235,000 Norwegians Lack of GP.
Sigurd Stette
Leads the medical group that is suing the state.
The letter from ESA comes after a meeting in October last year. It was precisely about the approval of Danish medical education.
The letter states that the experience doctors gain in Denmark must be other specialist training and not part of the basic training if it is to be able to grant exemption from the Norwegian rotation.
Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol believes the letter makes it clear that the state cannot approve a Danish doctor’s rotation as Norwegian specialist training.
– The letter from ESA clarifies the requirements. The letter specifies that the Danish rotation is part of the basic education, while the Norwegian LIS1 is part of the specialist education, says Kjerkol.
Kjerkol believes that the Ministry of Health cannot make special arrangements for a single country’s education, as the regulations are today.
The letter also states that if Norway wishes to introduce exemptions from parts of the Norwegian specialist education, the European authorities must be notified.
The Norwegian authorities have not done that.
The medical group does not buy Kjerkol’s explanation.
I think the state is wrong
– Nowhere in the letter does it say that the Danish rotation should be considered part of the basic education in medicine, says group leader Stette.
He believes that the state is wrong when they assume that Danish rotations are included in basic education in Denmark.
Stette is supported by lawyer Hilde K. Ellingsen. She represents the doctors in this case.
– The letter does not support the state’s view, on the contrary. The parts we have been able to see do not contain anything that can substantiate that the current approval practice is required or legal, says Ellingsen.
Recognizing the doctor shortage
Kjerkol understands the doctors’ frustration. But she shifts the blame onto the EEA regulations.
– We wish it were easier to get them into the Norwegian system, but we are bound by a set of regulations.
At the same time, the minister admits that there is a GP crisis in Norway and believes that the crisis has grown larger over many years.
Thus, Kjerkol disagrees with the Norwegian Directorate of Health and Randi Moen Forfang, who have previously pronounced to Aftenposten that she does not necessarily think there is a shortage of children in Norway.
Kjerkol has no comment on the lawsuit itself. But she says that the ministry is already looking at possibilities to make it easier to carry out LIS1.
The Norwegian Directorate of Health will make a final decision on the notice of legal action in mid-August. Their answer determines whether the dispute ends up in the court system.
2023-08-07 08:34:05
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