Sweden recruits Estonian doctors

The emigration of so many of its doctors is increasingly becoming a problem for Estonia: with their higher salaries the Nordic states are luring the doctors away, the Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht writes. It adds that in Finland alone around 360 doctors, 30 dentists and 65 nurses from Estonia were working in 2007. "Now the community of Gävleborg in Sweden has started a campaign to recruit between 20 and 30 doctors in the Baltic states. ... Estonians' interest in working at Swedish hospitals has grown from year to year. ... Although doctors' salaries have risen substantially in the past few years, they still earn considerably more in Sweden than here. And the more doctors move from Estonia to Sweden, the more attractive Sweden becomes for Estonian doctors because ... they [can already] be received into an Estonian community. ... Sweden is currently looking for emergency doctors, psychiatrists and surgeons in the Baltic states. Candidates do not even need good command of the Swedish language because there are special language courses on offer for them in Sweden."

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