Dutch company Bios has less than a month to recruit 200 paramedics before it takes over the ambulance services in southern Jutland that will continue to be provided by Falck until the end of August.
READ MORE: Dutch firm takes over emergency services business in southern Jutland
The health minister, Sophie Løhde, is now stepping in to make sure the region has enough emergency medical personnel.
“It is absolutely crucial that citizens of this region feel safe and confident that they can be driven to a hospital in an ambulance after September 1,” Løhde told Politiken.
Despite attempts to recruit personnel both in Denmark and abroad, Bios still needs some 200 paramedics to fill the 558 positions needed to service the region.
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Going where others have failed
The company’s executive manager, Morten Hansen, is confident Bios will manage to get all the personnel and promises the citizens of southern Jutland the ambulance service will be ready in time.
Bios is looking to end Falck’s 100-year domination of ambulance services in Denmark, but according to Jes Søgaard, a professor of health economics at the University of Aarhus, the company might have taken on too big a challenge.
In 2009, the Swedish company Samariten failed when it attempted to enter the Danish market.
