Employees at nursing homes in Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality on Funen have gone public with accounts of severe time pressure and understaffing, saying they cannot give residents the care they need.
Three care home employees in the municipality described their working days in interviews with Arbejderen. They say they must run faster and faster, and that they often go home feeling they have not done their job properly.
According to Arbejderen, an entire care home is typically staffed by only two employees at night. Staff say that leaves too few hands to secure residents a decent quality of life. The outlet describes residents with dementia crying out in fear at night and calling for their mothers.
Figures from the union branch FOA Sydfyn, sent by email and cited by Arbejderen, put staffing levels in Faaborg-Midtfyn below the national average on day, evening and night shifts. At the care home Priceshave, there are on average 4.5 residents per employee on day shifts, 7.7 on evening shifts and 27 at night. The national averages cited in the article, given without a specific year, are 2.5, 6.4 and 21.5.
Part of an ongoing staff protest
Arbejderen links the interviews to a wider campaign among staff in the municipality’s nursing homes. Earlier in August 2026, the outlet published an open letter signed by 64 employees at four care homes in Faaborg-Midtfyn. In it, the employees wrote that they were desperate and could not carry out their work responsibly.
The signatories said they go home each day with a bad conscience, pointing to understaffing and a growing volume of practical tasks. Arbejderen presents the new interviews as individual voices behind that collective appeal.
Local outlet Midtfynsposten, part of Fyens Stiftstidende, reported on August 25, 2026 that 45 employees in Faaborg-Midtfyn’s elder care have raised similar alarms. Staff told the paper that a single sick note can topple an entire shift. The report also notes staff concerns that local politicians are shielded from everyday realities in the sector.
In a separate feature published in June 2026, Fyens Stiftstidende described a local business figure who was shocked by conditions at a Funen care home. He said employees were running as if they were on piecework.
Broader union figures point in the same direction. Fagbladet FOA reported in August 2025 that nearly half of care home staff nationally said there were care and nursing tasks they found difficult to complete satisfactorily in a typical week because of time constraints.
No statement from Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality or other authorities appears in the coverage of the case, and none of the outlets dispute the staffing ratios reported by FOA Sydfyn.
