Inge dreamed of adventure and became Greenland’s first chief pharmacist

By: Maria Trustrup, journalist, Pharmadanmark. Photos: Private

There is no hesitation in Inge Mortensen’s voice when she is asked what she misses most about Greenland.

“The nature,” she replies promptly.

Inge lived and worked in Greenland for 25 years, and the country in the far north holds a huge place in her heart.

She moved to Greenland with her husband, Jørn, in 1997, and three years ago the couple returned to Denmark.

Inge, who is a trained pharmacist and became Greenland’s first chief pharmacist, is now 68 years old and enjoys life as a pensioner.

Today, she lives in a house in Hillerød, and although she enjoys tending the garden in summer after many years with cliffs in her backyard, there is one thing she misses deeply: a horizon.

“There is no horizon, and it is awful. My husband and I often go up to the north coast to walk along the water. Being able to look out across endless water is something I truly miss,” says Inge.

Moving into a Danish residential neighbourhood can feel slightly claustrophobic, and the longing for her former life in Greenland is especially strong on the day Pharmadanmark’s journalist meets Inge to talk about her life and career in the north.

We meet on one of the first days of January. The sun is high in the clear, frosty sky, and Copenhagen is covered in snow.

On a day like that, it is hard not to miss the snow-covered mountains, Inge says.

Although Denmark is her country of origin, Greenland also clearly feels like home.

“They are two very different things. Denmark is everything I come from. Family, history, schooling and all of that,” says Inge, pausing briefly.

“Greenland is perhaps more my love. If you know what I mean.”

A dog sled expedition to Qaanaaq

The story of Inge’s life in Greenland begins more than 30 years ago.

Inge has always wanted to see the world, and she has also always had a fondness for great nature experiences.

After qualifying as a pharmacist in 1986, she worked for a few years at the hospital pharmacy in Copenhagen County and later at Novo Nordisk. But the adventure kept calling.

“I needed some air,” Inge says.

She had travelled to Nepal several times and had also spent one summer in Greenland on a hiking trip.

But these were always shorter journeys, and she wanted something more.

One evening, as she was packing her backpack for yet another trip to Nepal, a friend she had met while hiking in Greenland called her.

“Hi Inge, would you like to come to Greenland and do an expedition?” the voice asked.

It was a wild suggestion. Was Inge ready to quit her good job and take the plunge?

“I was leaving for Nepal the next day, so I asked if I could think about it. That was fine. And when I came back from Nepal, I was ready to say yes.”

Inge resigned from her job and travelled to Greenland with her friend Lone. During the winter of 1993, they learned how to drive a dog sled.

The idea was that the following year, from February to June 1994, they would complete a dog sled expedition from Sisimiut, located around the Arctic Circle, all the way to Qaanaaq (Thule), Greenland’s northernmost town.

The expedition aimed to support Greenlandic hunters’ right to sell sealskins.

For many years, the hunting communities had struggled financially after the French actress Brigitte Bardot launched a campaign in the 1970s against seal hunting and the sale of sealskins.

With their expedition, Inge and Lone wanted to draw attention to the hunters’ situation. They received funding from various foundations, making the journey possible.

Jørn reappears

Before the two women set off, Inge had a short temporary position at the pharmacy at the national hospital in Nuuk.

“I thought: I know that guy. And we have been together ever since.”

The job was fine, but it is particularly important to Inge’s story because it was here that she met Jørn, whom she later married.

Jørn was a doctor at the hospital, and although they did not become a couple at the time, the meeting would prove to be decisive.

After Inge and Lone completed their expedition, which went very well, they returned to Denmark to give talks about their journey.

They travelled all over the country, and at one point they came to Møn to present their story.

And there he was, sitting among the audience. Jørn, whom Inge had met just over a year earlier when they were both in Greenland.

“I thought: I know that guy. And we have been together ever since,” Inge says.

3,500 inhabitants and 22 beds

The new couple quickly agreed that they wanted to return to Greenland.

Jørn was in Denmark to continue his specialist training in gynaecology, but the plan had always been for him to go back to Greenland.

About a year later, in 1997, the couple returned “home” to Greenland and settled in Aasiaat, a town of around 3,500 inhabitants on the edge of Disko Bay on Greenland’s west coast.

Jørn became head of the hospital, and initially Inge followed without having a job lined up.

After just a month, however, the hospital superintendent called and offered her a job. They had two positions they did not expect to fill again, so they wanted Inge to run the hospital pharmacy.

Inge ended up managing the pharmacy at the small hospital with 22 beds for nine years.

Keeping track of medicines in the settlements

The job did not only involve working at the hospital. Inge was also responsible for ensuring access to medicines in the seven small settlements around Aasiaat, home to around 1,500 people in total.

“When medicines needed to be delivered, we took a boat out to the settlements and brought the medicines we expected would be needed for the next six months.”

“When medicines needed to be delivered, we took a boat out to the settlements and brought the medicines we expected would be needed for the next six months,” Inge explains.

In Greenland, pharmacists and pharmaconomists are allowed to access patients’ medical records, which was a great help.

This allowed Inge to see, for example, that in one settlement there were five people on anticoagulant treatment, while in another there was one person receiving migraine medication.

“We went through everything so we knew what medicines were being used. It was very hands-on in an Excel spreadsheet, because we had no electronic solution, but it worked. It is still a system used in many places in Greenland today,” says Inge.

Should we introduce prescriptions?

Inge generally helped bring structure to many aspects of the small hospital in Aasiaat.

One of the things she introduced was prescriptions.

When Inge started, prescriptions were not used in the town. At that time, only Nuuk used prescriptions.

“When a patient came asking for medicine prescribed by a doctor, we sometimes had to leaf through the medical records to find where the doctor had written it,” Inge says.

Sometimes she had to go several years back in the records. If she could see that the patient had not been for a check-up during that time, she contacted the doctor to ask whether the medicine could be dispensed or whether it was time for a review.

“It meant a completely different level of involvement in patient care, and it was incredibly exciting to work so closely with the doctors,” says Inge.

“But it was obviously unsustainable to rummage through records like that, so it did not take long before prescription pads were introduced and doctors wrote prescriptions for all treatments. Later, electronic patient records and electronic prescriptions were introduced across the country.”

From Aasiaat to chief pharmacist

The work in Aasiaat and the surrounding settlements gave Inge extensive knowledge of the healthcare system, medicine procurement, and the challenges of distributing and dispensing medicines in Greenland.

Many things are done differently than in Denmark, and in 2006 a new medicines act was introduced to regulate the procurement, distribution and use of medicines in Greenland.

The act also meant that Greenland would appoint its first chief pharmacist to oversee the new rules and requirements.

Inge had not initially planned to apply for the job, but she was encouraged to do so.

“I ended up applying because I thought I would be very dissatisfied if someone from Denmark came in without knowing anything at all about Greenland.”

Inge got the job and in April 2006 she was appointed as Greenland’s first chief pharmacist.

For the first years, she continued to live in Aasiaat, effectively becoming a commuter, as her office was in Nuuk.

“I had quite a long commute. It took a couple of days by ferry to get to Nuuk, but a lot of paperwork was done on those trips,” Inge laughs.

Designing a brand-new national pharmacy

Part of Inge’s role as chief pharmacist involved travelling around the country to ensure everything was running as it should.

“I have been almost everywhere, except for a few settlements far in the south. I have seen most of Greenland, and not many people can say that.”

“I have seen most of Greenland, and not many people can say that.”

Although the job meant many days away from home in Aasiaat, Inge loved travelling. It made it even more rewarding to see that her work made a difference.

“It is fantastic when you can see that something you have initiated adds quality,” she says.

Inge was also head of the national pharmacy at the national hospital in Nuuk. It functions as the hospital pharmacy for the hospital’s 200 beds and as a community pharmacy for Nuuk’s 20,000 residents.

At one point, the hospital was rebuilt, and the national pharmacy was given new premises.

“We were thrilled because it meant we got five times as much space,” Inge says.

However, when she saw the drawings of the new pharmacy, it quickly became clear that the layout was far from optimal.

The architects had focused mainly on the medical clinic and a new emergency centre, so the pharmacy plans needed another look.

Inge and her colleague decided to take matters into their own hands.

“We designed the new pharmacy ourselves. For a week, we moved walls, shelves and counters around and worked with the architects on what was possible,” says Inge.

“We designed the new pharmacy ourselves. For a week, we moved walls, shelves and counters around.”

“I had never imagined I would be allowed to be part of something like that.”

But that was the nature of the job. Inge was not only a traditional pharmacist. She wore many hats.

She often had to be creative, as funds were limited.

“At one point, we needed another cold room and found space in the basement under the hospital. It cost half a million, but it allowed us to buy in larger quantities and save money, because everything arrived by air. We did the calculations and presented our arguments, and we ended up getting the cold room.”

A major challenge to recruit staff

Over the years, when Inge has spoken to others considering working in Greenland, one of her main selling points has been the level of responsibility.

“If you have the ideas and can make things work, you can realistically do almost anything,” she says.

Despite the many opportunities, recruiting staff for the national pharmacy has been extremely difficult.

“That has definitely been the hardest part of the job,” Inge says.

Throughout the years, Inge struggled to fill vacant positions. At times, extensive negative media coverage of Greenland did not make it easier.

According to Inge, there has also been a shift among younger generations.

There is less curiosity about seeing the world and more focus on taking the right steps up the career ladder, she believes.

But according to the former chief pharmacist, it is worth being a little brave. And a period in Greenland does not harm your career.

“You cannot come home and say you were a department manager or section manager, because we have a flat organisational structure in Greenland. But you come home with a lot of experience, perhaps somewhat intangible, and you have truly learned to take responsibility, which many employers appreciate.”

Some may also fear that settling in a completely new country will be lonely. That fear can be put aside, Inge says.

There are 10 to 12 employees at the national pharmacy, and it feels like a small family.

“People are incredibly good at looking out for each other. If someone seems a bit lonely, you go on a hike together, go to the cinema or have a Friday beer. There is a strong sense of security and community,” she says.

“It has been magical”

The many years in Greenland have been a great adventure for Inge and Jørn. In their spare time, they have hiked, hunted and gone on month-long kayaking trips. In Aasiaat, they had their own dog team and encountered wolves, polar bears, musk oxen and walruses.

“I never imagined my working life would turn out like this. It is an incredible gift.”

It was therefore a major and difficult decision when the couple chose to return to Denmark three years ago.

The decision was eased by the fact that Inge helped find her successor as chief pharmacist.

Tina Holst Nielsen, who is now chief pharmacist, had travelled with Médecins Sans Frontières for several years. She had also worked at the national pharmacy and was familiar with the work in Greenland.

“I could not imagine handing everything over to someone from the outside, but Tina knew what it was all about,” Inge says.

“Tina is now building on the foundation I helped create. She is well underway, taking things further and adding new layers.”

Today, Inge and Jørn are happy to be closer to grandchildren, friends and family, but they miss the far north every single day.

The current uncertain situation surrounding Greenland, which fills much of the news both in Denmark and Greenland, naturally affects the couple deeply.

“I actually feel that I can hardly read the newspapers. I am so affected by it,” Inge says.

It is difficult to imagine how everything will end. At the moment, the longing for close friends who still live “at home” in Aasiaat and Nuuk is especially strong.

But when emotions run high, it is also a sign that something has truly mattered.

And Greenland has mattered deeply to Inge and Jørn.

“I never imagined my working life would turn out like this. It is an incredible gift,” Inge says.

It sounds like you have had a rather magical life?

“Yes, it has been magical. And I am so grateful for the life I have had.”