Lycksele BB has been closed even after Christmas and New Year due to staff shortages.

In addition to midwives, pediatricians and gynecologists are missing.

- You can't have BB if you don't have a gynecologist, and ideally you should have a paediatrician, too, says Cecilia Nordenson.

Staffing the pediatrician service has been challenging and the last permanently employed gynecologist in Lycksele resigned during the autumn.

Dissatisfied with compensation

According to Nordenson, one reason for the doctor shortage is that the Medical Association terminated a 20-year-old agreement that regulates on-call compensation for doctors.

The region saw no need to renegotiate the agreement.

The workload during the shift in Lycksele can be extremely uneven.

Without the agreement, the doctors receive very little compensation if the passports are quiet.

- Sometimes they can sit up in Lycksele for a weekend with almost no compensation at all because the contingency compensation is very low.

Without the agreement, it is hardly worth it for rental and relay staff to go there, she says.

The medical association now aims to renegotiate the agreement.

Cecilia Nordenson believes that more specialist services are needed overall for Lycksele Hospital to make the business work.

The salary is important, but the decisive factor is that the doctors can influence their work situation and receive further training, the opportunity for that is lacking in the region today.

The regional council: "Promised that there will be three maternity units"

SVT has asked regional councilor Peter Olofsson (S) for a comment.

In December he said:

- This is not a quick fix, but we have to turn over all the stones to solve it.

He then said that it is difficult to get rental staff to Lycksele as there is a national problem with the supply of skills at women's clinics. 

Could there be a permanent closure of Lycksele BB?

- No, it is absolutely not our will, but we will have to live with shorter closures.

We have promised that there will be three maternity units in Västerbotten and we stand by that, said Olofsson.

In the clip, Cecilia Nordenson explains why it is not sustainable to only have rental staff.