General practitioners are the backbone of the Danish healthcare system. However, over the years it has become an increasing problem to attract doctors to the outlying areas of Denmark. The citizens in these outlying areas are therefore in a much worse position when it comes to medical care than the citizens who live near the larger cities.

But in 2010, AAU initiated the establishment of a medical programme in North Jutland and today, the figures show that the majority of the doctors who graduate from Aalborg University stay in the region after their graduation.

‘There is not just a shortage of doctors in Denmark. There is a regional shortage of doctors in Denmark. These figures show that it’s a good idea to think in long-term solutions as we have done with the medical programme here in North Jutland. Quick solutions including various motivators - and perhaps even coercion - do not solve the shortage of doctors in the outlying areas. We have already tried that and it does not work. But it has paid off to recognise the major potential resources that we have here in North Jutland and to educate talented people in the specific local area that requires the capacity’, says Lars Hvilsted Rasmussen, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Aalborg University.

Contact

Strategic Advisor Lone Bechmann, the Faculty of Medicine, Aalborg University, lbec@adm.aau.dk