Local newspaper Drammens Tidende has been back at Hotvet legesenter — this time to see how things are going after a summer of building things up. The answer: all six GPs are now in place, patient lists are growing, and there is still plenty of room for more. Here are the highlights, adapted for our English-speaking readers.
From a quiet start to full swing
The new clinic in Rosenkrantzgata opened its doors in June, but a big-bang opening was never the plan. The summer was spent getting to know each other, getting the lab running, establishing routines, and gradually taking on more patients.
Now, in September, all six GPs (fastleger) are up and running, and the team at Hotvet feels they are genuinely underway. Even so, there is still plenty of room on the lists.
"We have capacity for over 3,000 more patients."
Goran Dosic, Managing Director, to Drammens Tidende
A different picture than Drammen is used to
Drammen municipality has struggled with insufficient GP capacity for several years. By the end of 2025, around 5,600 people were on the waiting list for a GP. The six new patient lists at Hotvet legesenter are a marked exception to that picture — and ten more new GP positions are due to open across the municipality during 2026.
GP Frida Børsting notices the difference in the patients coming through the door:
"People simply have more options now."
Frida Børsting, GP at Hotvet legesenter
She points out that the waiting-list figures are not only people with no GP at all — many already have one, but are queuing because they want to switch. And, as Dosic stresses, Hotvet legesenter is an ordinary municipal GP practice with six publicly funded GP positions (fastlegehjemler) — not a private clinic, as some assume.
The GPs now working at Hotvet legesenter
The full team of doctors, as introduced in the piece:
- Ahmed Akram — specialist in general practice, with experience as a doctor in Sweden. Speaks Swedish, Arabic, Greek and English, among others.
- Inva Malaj — specialist in general practice, working in Swedish primary care since 2017, with particular experience in women's health, gynaecology, children, mental health and chronic conditions.
- Mari Sørum Melaaen — specialist in general practice, trained at the University of Copenhagen, with several years of medical experience from Denmark. When she returned to Norway, Hotvet was the only position she applied for.
- Anja Egilsdóttir — doctor in specialist training in general practice (ALIS), with experience from GP locum work, a district psychiatric centre (DPS), a health clinic (helsestasjon) and the out-of-hours clinic (legevakt). Currently combines Hotvet with a 60% position at a DPS.
- Frida Børsting — doctor in specialist training in general practice (ALIS), with experience from several GP practices, including internal medicine, orthopaedics and psychiatry. Her patient list has grown the fastest and is nearing 500 — from December she moves to full-time at Hotvet.
- Hubert Shema — doctor in specialist training in general practice (ALIS), with experience from neurology and several GP practices.
The team also includes medical secretaries Trude Bakke, Finan Tsegai Issak and Maren Lyngås-Høiback. Read more about the whole team on our team page.
Built together, from day one
Dosic has his own experience of building up and running a GP practice, which he brought with him when Hotvet was built from scratch. The goal has been for the doctors to avoid spending unnecessary time on everything around the job itself — with equipment, lab operations and routines all working from the start.
"From day one, I could sit down and see patients. Everything worked."
Frida Børsting, GP at Hotvet legesenter
At the same time, the idea is not for Dosic alone to hold all the answers. The doctors and medical secretaries meet regularly to discuss routines, patient flow, and how the practice should develop.
"I like that everyone feels this is theirs. Because it is theirs."
Goran Dosic, Managing Director at Hotvet legesenter
More than 20 people applied for the GP positions, and around 60 applied to be medical secretaries, when the practice was being staffed up. Even with the team now in place, the goal is not to stop at today's six doctors — the premises are built for up to twelve. If the municipality wants more GPs at Hotvet, there is room for that too.
Hotvet legesenter is located at Rosenkrantzgata 75, centrally in the Hotvet area, in a part of Drammen undergoing strong growth. Several of the doctors point to the local neighbourhood as a big driver — people talk, and whole families end up registering with the same GP.
How to register as a patient
With plenty of room on all six lists, now is a good time to switch:
- Go to helsenorge.no and log in with BankID.
- Choose "Change of GP" (Bytte av fastlege).
- Search for one of the GPs at Hotvet legesenter (see the names above) and select the doctor you want.
- Confirm the switch. Your new GP takes effect from the first day of the following month.
You can switch GP up to twice per calendar year, free of charge. If you need help along the way, we have a more detailed step-by-step guide to changing GP in Drammen.
Plenty of room with all six GPs
With capacity for over 3,000 more patients, it is easy to become a patient with us right now. See which doctors have open spots.
See available GP spots