According to statistics from Sweden's municipalities and regions, SKR, only two regions in the whole country managed to reduce their costs for hired staff in health care last year, compared with the year before - Skåne and Blekinge.
Increased costs
In both Östergötland and on Gotland, the regions' costs for hired staff increased in 2021. In Östergötland, the total figure for costs for hired staff increased by 6.1 per cent and on Gotland by 3.0 per cent.
- The increase generally has to do with the pandemic situation and the need to work with advanced care to be able to treat patients who have had to wait based on the need to prioritize the consequences of the pandemic.
This means that we have tried to strengthen with resources in all ways where it has been needed, for example through hourly employment, moving employees or through hiring staff, says Zilla Jonsson, HR director to SVT Nyheter Öst.
Does not achieve the goal
Today, a goal has been set that the regions' cost for temporary staff should not exceed 2 percent of the total staff cost.
According to statistics from SKR, neither Östergötland nor Gotland achieve that goal.
In Östergötland, the cost of temporary staff amounted to 3.2 percent in 2021 - on Gotland, the same figure is 9.1 percent.
If you look at a national comparison, Östergötland is in the lower half when it comes to relating to the goal that costs for rental staff should include a maximum of two percent of staff costs.
If you compare between 2020 and 2021, the percentage is largely the same.
But as the number of employees increased during the same period, this means that even if the percentage is approximately equal, the costs have increased.
We want to reduce the costs for rental staff and see that active and long-term work is needed to achieve this, says Zilla Jonsson.
The cost of hired staff in psychiatry is what has increased the most for Region Östergötland.
On Gotland, the cost has increased the most in primary care.