Ingivld Kjerkol, who announced her resignation as health minister last week after her master’s was revoked due to plagiarism, said that the GP crisis in Norway has lessened.

“The government’s move to save the GP scheme is yielding results. The GP crisis is heading towards the end,” Kjerkol told Norwegian newswire NTB. 

It was estimated that up to 235,000 residents in Norway were without a GP in 2022. A high number of medical practitioners leaving the GP scheme and struggles to recruit enough doctors were seen as significant contributors. 

“We took over a GP scheme in crisis. It began as a regional problem and gradually developed into a national problem,” Kjerkol said.

“The government is aware that more must be done to ensure lasting sustainability, as announced in the National Health and Cooperation Plan,” she added. 

Still, a new report from the Norwegian Directorate of Health indicates that the situation has improved somewhat. 

The report shows that the number of people without a GP has fallen from 228,000 to 181,000. 

Last year, 237 GPs were recruited, and between December 2023 and April 2024, the number of GPs increased by 111. 

The Association for General Practitioners had previously told TV 2 that around 1,000 GPs would need to be recruited to resolve the crisis. 

Kjerkol said that the government has spent more than 1 billion kroner to try and strengthen the GP scheme. 

Norway’s GP system has a patient list scheme whereby doctors are assigned a patient list. 

The number of patient lists with a permanent doctor has increased by 30, and the number of lists without a permanent doctor has decreased by 46 to 276 this year. 

One challenge for GPs has been long patient lists, with the Association for General Practitioners previously saying that lists with few paitents would allow for more “livable working conditions” and would lead to less doctors wanting to quit. 

The average patient list with a permanent doctor has shrunk from 995 to 993. Meanwhile, the overall average has dropped from 978 to 976 between March and April 2024.