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In May, the Storting passed extensive amendments to the Biotechnology Act. It was decided that all pregnant women will have an early ultrasound and NIPT test. In such a test, an analysis of fetal DNA is performed on a blood sample from the mother.
The Norwegian Health Directorate was commissioned to study how changes to the law can be made in the Norwegian health system. Today they presented their recommendations in a webinar.
Gradual introduction
The working group behind the report believes that the new scheme should be introduced gradually. They recommend that the scheme initially cover all women over 35 years of age during 2021. The group has considered that early ultrasound for all pregnant women cannot reach until 2022.
Torunn Janbu, department director of the Norwegian Health Directorate, says that the first ultrasounds for everyone cannot arrive until 2022. He also says that time should be re-analyzed over the next year.
Photo: Tomas Berger / NRK
– We have studied what the different surveys should contain, what competency requirements are needed, equipment needs, resource and personnel needs. This is what Torunn Janbu, director of the specialist health services department at the Norwegian Health Directorate, says.
She says the group is concerned that the offer is a real quality improvement.
– We are concerned that it is the same for the whole country, has good quality and is a boost for maternity care. It takes time to build such an offer.
NIPT tests for Sweden
There are already some who are offered a NIPT test in Norway. This applies to pregnant women over 38 years of age. No Norwegian laboratory performs such analyzes. Therefore, the tests are sent to the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden. The Norwegian Health Directorate believes that it should be possible to analyze the tests in Norway when the number increases.
– It will not be in force during 2021, says Torunn Janbu.
Very few midwives
– What we have to wait is when the money will arrive. We need equipment, space and to educate people. That’s what Anne Helbig, fetal medicine specialist at OUS and chief physician in Ahus’s maternity ward, says.
She says it will take time to introduce the new scheme because the infrastructure must be in place and they must have enough people who can conduct the surveys.
– I think staffing is the biggest bottleneck. That is twice the number of ultrasounds we do today. You can’t just adjust and have everything in place in three months.
Department Head Hildegunn Faraas at Ahus Gynecology Clinic is satisfied with the recommendation that the plan be phased in.
This is a big challenge, especially with experience. Not many midwives are not working today, says department director Hildegunn Faraas at the Ahus women’s clinic.
Photo: NRK
– It is a challenge in relation to this with the number of midwives. We are fighting to recruit midwives from the municipalities to the hospitals. There we have a challenge in relation to the number that we can send to continuing education. To become an ultrasound midwife, you must have an additional year of education at NTNU in Trondheim.
She says that those who get ultrasounds today must also have a continuing education to be able to take the new exams.
– And if they’re going to retrain, they can’t do the job they do today. Competency development is what will be the biggest problem for us, says Faraas.
Health Minister Bent Høie said in May that he feared changes to the Biotechnology Law could put pressure on the health service.
Put away money
– I am pleased that the first phase-in of both early ultrasound and NIPT offerings can be ready in half a year. It is a good start that we are starting for those over 35, who represent 22% of pregnant women nationwide. Now it is important that we get started, so that within a year we can be up to date with all the new offers that the Storting has decided that Norwegian pregnant women will receive. Set says Labor Party Parliamentary Representative Tuva Moflag.
The Labor Party has set aside money in its alternative budget to start in 2021.
Dissatisfied
– We are aware that public hospitals must bet on the purchase of more equipment, educate more and that it will take some time to develop capacities. But one thing Bent Høie will notice right away. The Progress Party is extremely unhappy with the fact that in its order it has not placed more emphasis on what private actors can contribute, says Åshild Bruun-Gundersen, spokesman for health policy in the Progress Party.
