NORTH JYLLAND: More doctors closer to citizens. This is the essence of 10 proposals for restructuring the Danish healthcare system, which the general practitioners’ organization PLO and the National Association of Municipalities have just presented.

The joint plan is KL’s and PLO’s proposal for how municipalities and general practice can develop and strengthen local healthcare together. Among other things, it is regarding ensuring better medical coverage throughout the country and increasing citizens’ accessibility to their GP.

The proposals also function as KL and PLO’s bid for how the 1,500 additional general practitioners, which it has been agreed will be added by 2035, will benefit the citizens as much as possible. The parties propose, among other things, that there should be national control of where new extension numbers are placed.

That proposal goes down well with North Jutland’s PLO chairman Charlotte Lønskov Jensen.

– We need to have top management on where in the country extension numbers are created. If so many extension numbers were not created in Region Midt, then perhaps more doctors would look north of the regional border for work. We don’t have such national management at the moment, and we are some small regions that find it difficult to get enough doctors because they want to stay around the big cities, she says and adds:

– We have to get some of the 1,500 new doctors up here, so I’m a bit excited regarding what keys you can play there.

KL and PLO also propose that the general practitioners should be responsible for the treatment of citizens with chronic illness and the rope-bearers for citizens with mental disorders, and that there should be permanent resident doctors and a stronger collaboration between local doctors and care for the elderly.

In addition, according to the plan, the parties want to strengthen the joint health clusters with significantly more independent finances and decision-making power, so that they are the place where decisions are made locally, priorities are made and each other is committed to the joint efforts that cut across the healthcare sectors.

Requires finance

A local politician who has worked in the area of ​​health and the elderly for many years, namely Henning Sørensen (V), chairman of the committee for social, health and employment in Morsø Municipality, is conditionally positive regarding the move from KL and PLO.

– I want to put it this way that if there is an economy involved that makes it possible to implement it as planned, then there are good perspectives in it. But if no money comes with the PLO, then I know how it often goes. They want to be involved, but it always comes down to finances, says Henning Sørensen and continues:

– So one thing is the paper that is written on. Another thing is to make it work. So I want to see the agreement KL makes with the PLO before I want to clap my hands regarding it.

When it comes to the joint health clusters, Henning Sørensen is unsure what role they will play in the future. He himself is a member of Sundhedsklynge West, which is one of four health clusters in the North Jutland region, where politicians and civil servants from the municipalities and the region as well as representatives of the PLO sit.

– What we are doing today is that we are talking together regarding the cooperation between the municipalities and the regions. It has been fantastic, and we have made a lot of things happen, he says.

The draft from KL and PLO will now be sent to the Health Structure Commission, set up by the government, which is expected to present its recommendations in the spring of 2024.