Danish language requirements used when recruiting nurses from outside the EU are to be relaxed as part of measures aimed at reducing hospital waiting times.
The change to the requirements will mean that they will become more streamlined and unified than they are currently, the Ministry of the Interior and Health said.
Language criteria for nurses from non-EU countries will thereby be brought into line with the requirements used for nurses from EU and EEA countries.
This means that it will not be a legal requirement for non-EU nationals to pass a Danish language test before they are employed on a probationary basis, termed evaluation appointment in Danish.
This type of probationary employment means the nurse is hired for an initial six months on a full-time basis. During that period, the hospital can assess the employee’s abilities and communication skills.
“It will still be ensured that health personnel have Danish language skills at the requisite level with respect to patient safety and more,” the ministry in an outline of the agreement.
“Many of our hospitals are in a difficult situation and we need to get them back on track so patients can get treatment sooner and we ease the strain on health staff,” Health Minister Sophie Løhde said in a press statement.
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The national organisation for patients, Danske Patienter, expressed reservations about the relaxation of language criteria.
“This is a good and necessary plan to set in motion some things that can help the many patients who are waiting for treatment today,” deputy director Annette Wandel told news wire Ritzau.
Allowing hospitals to evaluate the language skills of staff locally could result in differences in how this is assessed, a potential factor in patient safety, she noted.
“Communication, in other words being able to understand what is being said and to express oneself, that is a core element of patient safety. So we could well be concerned here,” Wandel said.
“This is why it’s important that there is a follow-up so that a breakdown in quality does not happen here. Because we completely get that it is necessary to speed things up in relation to bringing in foreign doctors. We need them,” she said.
Patients in Denmark need not be concerned about the impact of the decision on quality of care, according to Anders Kühnau, head of Danske Regioner, the national body which represents the regional health authorities and which signed off on the government spending plan.
“It will be the local employer which decides, as is the case with health staff from EU countries, whether the [nurse’s] language proficiency is sufficient,” Kühnau said to Ritzau.
“So Danes should not be concerned that they will meet health personnel who do not have the required language proficiency,” he said.
“It is clear that if you have a very patient-facing job, good language skills will naturally mean more than if you are in a different role where you don’t have the same amount of patient contact,” he said.
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