Government will miss goal of assigning a GP to everyone

The government’s goal of ensuring that every resident has a regular family doctor will not be achieved under current conditions, mbl.is reports. The assessment comes from Oddur Steinarsson, director of the Kirkjusandi primary healthcare centre, and Gunnar Þór Geirsson, chairman of the Association of Icelandic Family Doctors.

The association’s board issued a statement earlier on Tuesday expressing deep disappointment with the 2027 budget bill. It said the increase in funding for primary healthcare was nowhere near enough to address accumulated financial problems.

“The increase in funding is not in line with the policy, and it does not take account of collective wage agreements, population growth or the ageing of the nation,” Oddur said.

He said that increased funding provided to primary healthcare in recent years had not been used for its core services. Instead, it had mainly gone to online chat services, the 1700 telephone service, mental health centres and other services that were not directly part of basic primary healthcare.

Oddur has previously written about the financial problems facing primary healthcare and the working conditions of family doctors in the Icelandic Medical Journal.

Oddur said the workload for family doctors in Iceland was considerable, partly because they were proportionally fewer than in the other Nordic countries. Gunnar agreed.

“The working environment is demanding and we need to work faster. There are not enough of us,” Gunnar said.

He said that although Iceland had developed a strong specialist training programme in family medicine, it needed additional funding.

According to Gunnar, the funding currently available is insufficient for resident doctors in the programme to complete their rotations at Landspítali. This could affect their progress and delay their graduation, he said.

Gunnar added that he did not believe the government was creating the right conditions for Iceland’s family doctor system to flourish.

The government’s coalition agreement includes a commitment to ensure that everyone in the country has a regular family doctor. Oddur and Gunnar said the goal was not realistic under the government’s current measures.

“In 2024, the Social Democratic Alliance said this would be achieved within 10 years. The government took office nearly two years ago, so there are eight years left. It will not be achieved within that time given the current situation,” Oddur said.