North Jutland psychiatry cuts could lengthen patients’ journeys

DR reports that a shortage of psychiatrists could lead Region North Jutland, the regional authority, to cut psychiatric beds in Thisted and Frederikshavn. The move could force some patients and relatives to travel nearly two hours for care.

Inger Bøgh Bisgaard, who lives on the island of Mors in northwestern Jutland, has often driven her adult son to psychiatric care in Thisted when his schizophrenia made life difficult. The journey currently takes about 30 minutes.

She says every minute matters when a family member urgently needs help. Her son was first admitted to hospital when he was acutely suicidal.

“It is really difficult as a mother to stand with a child who is suicidal. You have no idea what to do,” she says.

Region North Jutland’s politicians are due to decide this month whether to reduce the number of psychiatric beds in Thisted and Frederikshavn from 16 to 10 at each location.

The proposal is based on the region’s inability to recruit enough permanent psychiatrists for the two outlying areas. It would create six beds in Brønderslev and four in Aalborg instead.

For Bisgaard and her son, that could mean a journey of nearly two hours.

“If you have psychosis or urgently need help, it is almost unbearable to have to travel that far in a car instead of reaching familiar surroundings after a half-hour drive,” she says.

Criticism of the proposed centralisation

Bisgaard, who chairs the mental health organisation Bedre Psykiatri in Thisted-Morsø, describes a possible centralisation of psychiatric care as close to a catastrophe.

“You are moving treatment farther away from citizens. That goes directly against the ambitions of the 10-year plan for psychiatry. And it does not solve the shortage of doctors,” she says.

Pia Jødal Næss-Schmidt, deputy regional chair of the Danish Nurses’ Organisation in North Jutland, also criticises the proposal.

“It does not fit the 10-year plan at all. The plan was specifically meant to upgrade psychiatry, ensure proximity and provide a coherent patient pathway,” she says.

Until now, all of Denmark’s regions have used psychiatrists as long-term locums. In North Jutland, they have helped keep staffing schedules running.

However, the regions have decided to phase out the locums next year, partly because they are too expensive. The region has not succeeded in recruiting permanent specialist doctors for Frederikshavn and Thisted, putting the beds in the two outlying areas at risk.

Næss-Schmidt says the region has created the problem itself by deciding to end the long-term locum arrangements.

“We believe they should extend the locum contracts instead of closing beds,” she says.

The plan is for the two outlying areas to regain their psychiatric beds sometime in the 2030s, once more specialist doctors in psychiatry have been trained.

Region says patients should not worry

Lene Linnemann of the Socialist People’s Party, who chairs the 10-year psychiatry plan in Region North Jutland, says there is no reason for concern.

Patients will still be able to receive help in Thisted and Frederikshavn, she says. However, if the proposal is approved and the number of beds is reduced, some patients may have to be discharged sooner than has previously been possible.

Linnemann adds that most of the most severely affected patients would already have needed to be admitted in Aalborg or Brønderslev, where the most specialised staff have long been based.

“It may be that some citizens will have to travel a little farther to receive help for a period,” she says.

Linnemann rejects the Danish Nurses’ Organisation’s proposal to retain specialist doctors as long-term locums.

“We will never get enough permanent specialist doctors if they can continue to earn one and a half times more as locums. We would rather ensure that patients meet the same doctor instead of a large number of different locums,” she says.