Junior doctors warn funding cuts will weaken specialist training

Junior doctors have warned that funding for medical training is being reduced in next year’s draft budget, while the head of the Faroese hospital service says more training is needed. KVF reported that only two of five specialist training posts are funded in the proposal.

The Yngri læknar association of junior doctors also says a fund for specialist doctors has been scrapped, while the allocation for training junior doctors has been left unchanged. In a public letter, the association asks whether the Faroes wants to train doctors for its health service.

Hospital service director Per Busk said he does. He said further training for junior doctors is essential to producing more specialists in the Faroes, reducing waiting lists and developing the hospital service with the eventual aim of becoming a university hospital.

In January, the then Ministry of Social Affairs and Health reached an agreement with Denmark’s Ministry of the Interior and Health allowing five specialist training posts to be established each year. A substantial part of the training can take place in the Faroes.

Busk said many Faroese students are studying medicine abroad and that most of those he met at a gathering at the hospital before Ólavsøka wanted to work in the Faroes in the future. He warned that without training posts and later specialist jobs, young doctors could take work elsewhere and may not return.