The cost of employing doctors in Sweden only getting higher against previous projected reductions

Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Just over a year ago, the Swedish, municipalities and county councils, (SKL) said that temporary workers employed in the healthcare sector would be halved by 2014. But the trend has been shown to be heading towards the opposite direction as we reported on Monday.
It was in late 2012 that SKL unveiled a strategy to greatly reduce dependence on temporal and agency workers in the care delivery sector, which 90 percent is made up of physicians. The reason is that these temp workers are damn expensive and the SKL would want to take this as a strategic move to also save money while providing quality care.

The cost of employing doctors in Sweden only getting higher against previous projected reductions  / Granscole

The stated goal then was to halve the hired temporal professionals by 2014. But things are moving in the opposite direction, according to a survey commissioned by the Swedish business daily Dagens Industri.
The cost of the so-called temporal workers has now reached Skr1.4 billion in the first six months of this year and for the year it is estimated to hit Skr2.9 billion – up 7 percent compared with 2012.
“We will not be able to halve the costs by 2014, “says Agneta Jöhnk, Schef  of SKL department for employer policy, and are blaming the large part of the increase to be due to this summer’s nursing shortage.
According to Mats Eriksson, President of SKL’s medical delegation, the target is to halve cost of fixed agency staff pointing out that psychiatry and GPs are the largest cost item for them.
Ask what is wrong with the temporal workers

Mats Eriksson said: “It may be good business with the employment agencies but having doctors who pops up and earn a lot more than other staff can lead to working condition problems,” says.
Just under half of Sweden’s county councils and regions say they want to cut their cost of employing agency workers for the 2013 period compared to 2012.
Uppsala, Blekinge, Halland and Stockholm are among the winners.
In Östergötland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Västra Götaland there has been increased relay costs, by between 30 and 60 percent.

Norrbotten council expected to add the most money onto the temping expansion in the healthcare sector with over Skr1,000 per inhabitant.
Stockholm has spent less money on temporal staff. The level is expected to land at Skr114 per inhabitant in 2013.
By Scancomark.com Team