Region Nordjylland is considering cutting psychiatric inpatient beds in Thisted and Frederikshavn, moving them to Brønderslev and Aalborg because the region cannot recruit enough psychiatrists.
DR reports that politicians in Region Nordjylland decide this month whether to reduce the number of psychiatric beds. The proposal would cut the count from 16 to 10 beds in both Thisted and Frederikshavn.
The reason is that the region has not been able to hire enough permanently employed psychiatrists for the two outlying areas. Under the proposal, six beds would instead be created in Brønderslev and four in Aalborg.
Inger Bøgh Bisgaard lives on the island of Mors in northwestern Jutland. Her adult son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the family has needed psychiatric care many times. They have often driven half an hour to the psychiatric department in Thisted.
Bisgaard, who chairs the patient relatives’ organization Bedre Psykiatri in Thisted-Morsø, told DR the drive could grow to nearly two hours. Per her account, her son was acutely suicidal the first time he was admitted.
She described psychiatric transport over that distance as almost unbearable for someone in psychosis. As stated by Bisgaard, the plan moves treatment further away from citizens and does not solve the shortage of doctors.
Nurses point to the locum decision
Pia Jødal Næss-Schmidt, deputy regional chair of Dansk Sygeplejeråd in Nordjylland, told DR the proposal conflicts with the 10-year plan for psychiatry. According to her, that plan was meant to upgrade psychiatry and secure proximity and coherent patient pathways.
Until now, all Danish regions have used psychiatrists employed as long-term locums, which kept work rosters functioning in Nordjylland. The regions have decided to phase out the locums next year, partly because they are too expensive.
Recruitment of permanent specialists to Frederikshavn and Thisted has not succeeded. As noted by Næss-Schmidt, the region created the problem itself, and the union wants the locum contracts extended rather than beds closed.
Region says patients can still get help
Lene Linnemann of SF, who chairs the 10-year plan for psychiatry in Region Nordjylland, said there is no reason for concern. She told DR that patients can still receive help in Thisted and Frederikshavn.
According to Linnemann, fewer beds would mean some patients are admitted for shorter periods than before. She added that most of the hardest hit patients would go to Aalborg or Brønderslev anyway, where the most specialized staff work.
Linnemann rejected the union’s proposal to keep specialists as long-term locums. Per her argument, permanent positions cannot be filled while locums earn one and a half times as much. The two areas could regain their beds sometime in the 2030s, once more psychiatry specialists have been trained.
