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Extra bureaucracy to 35 million every year

The GP scheme costs the state NOK 35 million annually in pure bureaucracy. For now, we need help getting a doctor.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Whatever one might think of the reformist reform, there has certainly been more bureaucracy.

Before, people used the telephone directory or jungle telegraph to get a doctor, without costing the community a red ear.

But after the regular medical scheme was introduced in the summer of 2001, the state spends NOK 35 million every year on a bureaucracy whose only task is to tell you which doctors listed in the telephone directory have time for you.

Doctors can die

When the then Minister of Health, Tore Tønne (Ap), introduced the general medical scheme on June 1, 2001, everyone who wanted it (20.000 have chosen to stand outside the scheme) had been assigned a permanent general practitioner to deal with.

However, this GP was no more firm than having the opportunity to replace him twice a year if he was dissatisfied. In addition, both physician and patient could risk moving or dying.

According to the National Insurance Scheme, there are now an average of 20-25.000 who change their GP at their own request per month. 5-8000 of these swaps occur as a result of moving.

To deal with this change, a separate bureaucracy has been created, called the GPs.

63 positions

The figures are not up to date when Ny Tid asks the National Insurance Administration for an overview of what this administration of the GP scheme costs.

But finally we get the answer: The budget for the operation of the GP offices in 2002 was NOK 34,6 million. And "the figures for 2003 are the same", we are informed in an e-mail.

When the scheme was introduced, 63 positions were created to staff the GP offices – one in each county. Five of the positions were retained in the National Insurance Administration to administer the scheme centrally.

So what do these regular offices and posts at a cost of NOK 35 million a year do? Yes, they take the phone and help people who need a new GP to find which doctors have free space on their patient lists.

And now they have also prepared an overview of this online – not unlike the yellow pages in the telephone directory, some might say.

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