Swiss hospital workers hoping to be able to regain their breath after the Covid pandemic are faced with a difficult reality. Swiss hospitals are close to saturation due to a severe shortage of staff, reported RTS.
A Swiss labour market survey published this week shows the severity of the shortage. 3,000 vacant hospital positions were published last month and there are an estimated 7,500 such vacancies across Switzerland, according to the Jobradar survey.
There is no shortage of beds. The problem is finding enough medical care workers, according to a hospital director in the canton of Fribourg.
Some hospitals are increasing the number of trainee positions. But it takes time to train people, said one hospital director. Bienne hospital has hired more people to start in the autumn but still has 55 vacancies. The hospital is experimenting with social media and a staff rewards system to find more new staff.
One option is to recruit staff in neighbouring countries where pay is lower and workers can be lured to Switzerland by relatively higher salaries. However, one hospital director is against this. For him it is unethical for Switzerland to take French and German staff. Switzerland needs to find ways to solve the problem locally, he said.
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Peter says
If foreign workers get employed instead of making the jobs more attractive then the swiss government should be ashamed of themselves just as the management of those hospitals.
They would get paid less and professional workers of neighbors would be missing from there.
All the while the swiss experts have no future in that kind of work.
The people who profit are the already rich management.
Clau Eri says
Foreign nurses are not well experienced. In interlaken hospital it’s happening. Nurses are not experienced.