Recession eases doctor shortage

Situation still difficult in remote areas

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The shortage of doctors at public health clinics appears to have been eased by the economic recession. The municipal health centres of many large and medium-sized cities are getting doctors more easily than before.
      The good news is not yet a reality in more remote areas, where the doctor shortage remains difficult.
     
The situation has improved considerably in the past year in Jyväskylä and Oulu, for instance.
      “Our situation is so good that at the beginning of the year we will stop using doctors from private services”, says Mauri Paajanen, head physician for out-patient medicine for the City of Jyväskylä.
      “There are many reasons for this, but this recession has also had an effect. We have also made efforts to make this the kind of work place where people want to work.”
     
At the Oulu health centre, the last open post was filled in September. Last autumn, one out of every three posts were vacant.
      Oulu has hired many young doctors who are getting on-the-job training under the guidance of older physicians.
     
There are signs of more availability of doctors at Helsinki’s health centres as well.
      “It is easier to get substitutes, and open posts have also been filled somewhat”, says Antti Iivanainen, head of Helsinki’s health clinics.
      In Lappeenranta, Markku Härmä, the head physician of that city’s health services, says that there were 12 unfilled vacancies for doctors last year, and now they have all been filled.
      “This would suggest that the young, mobile doctors would seem to be committing themselves to working for a municipal organisation”, Härmä says.
      The situation this year has also improved in Mikkeli and Seinäjoki. Kati Myllymäki, head physician of the Kouvola health centre also sees “a dim green light” in her city.
      Myllymäki has heard that as was the case during the previous recession, doctors from Estonia may again be coming to Finland, following cuts in Estonian health care.
     
In spite of the good news, the easing of the doctors’ shortage is not nearly at the same level as it was in the early 1990s, when the 11 per cent gap in public health care doctors was quickly wiped out. At one point, some doctors were actually unemployed.
     
Shortages remain acute at many municipal health centres. In Joensuu, for instance, the problem has not eased at all.
      In Finnish Lapland, more substitutes are available than before, but it is still difficult to get applicants for permanent positions at public health clinics.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Doctor shortage begins to ease (19.1.2004)
  Immigrants ease Finnish doctor shortage (6.10.2003)
  Municipalities increasingly employ private doctors to cover evenings and weekends (18.8.2003)
  Helsinki Health Centre wants to rent doctors from recruitment agencies (16.8.2004)

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