Recruiting healthstaff from abroad

The County Council of Dalarna, like many other landsting in Sweden, has demand for physicians. The main reason is that many of  those who were born in the 1940.s will  be retired between 2005 – 2015. Other factors are the downsizing and reorganizing of the public sector during the 90.s when many had to leave the health care sector and consequently reduced the attraction to work in the health care which in turn led to the downsizing of the education of physicians. Today our national education organization still is not up to the demand. Therefore many regions in Sweden are recruiting health care staff from countries within EU but also from non EU countries. Landstinget Dalarna has recruited physicians from Germany, but also physicians from Poland, and our experiences are very good. But recruitment from foreign countries is by no means easy for either part. Much work has to be done from first contact to employment.

Our recruitment group in landstinget Dalarna, which is responsible for the recruitment of foreign physicians started it´s work in a more systematical manner 2001. Since then we have built up competence about laws and regulations concerning migration and authorization of doctors from abroad, educational demands that have to be met, conditions for good introduction and integration and many other things. We also work as advisers to clinics and departments and coordinate the activities necessary for both the applicant and other actors in the recruitment process. Perhaps as spiders in the net if you like.