Get to Sweden

– We have not received a request for assistance from Sweden, says Health Minister Bent Høie to Dagbladet.

In Sweden, a very demanding situation develops in some intensive care units, especially in Stockholm, where there will soon be no available capacity. Sweden itself must ask for help if Norway is to help, Høie said last week.

– We have a close dialogue with the Swedish authorities and, through a health contingency agreement, it will be established when necessary, says health director Bjørn Guldvog.

– But isn’t it necessary now?

– It is completely natural to tradition that we help each other in health crises and of course we will always be ready to enter into dialogue with other Nordic countries in need of help. In the current situation, it is the Swedes themselves who decide if they want to ask for help and, to my knowledge, they have not.

– I would do like Sweden

The health director says he experiences that hard work is being done in Sweden to reduce pressure on hospitals.

– Hospitals are under pressure with many, many patients. At the same time, we see that health workers are making a great and powerful effort to be able to handle the situation, he says.

– What would we have done if we had the contagion pressure that Sweden has now?

– First of all, we wanted to work to reduce the pressure of the infection. Furthermore, we would do what we see Sweden doing now; We wanted to improve the capacity of the hospitals and use the resources that we have throughout the country. We wanted to make sure we had a capacity tailored to the number of patients we had, says Guldvog, who adds that there are no simple answers to this and that he will not give any concrete advice to Sweden in this context either.

– Huge effort

– Is what is happening now in Stockholm the nightmare we are working to avoid in Norway?

– What we have always worked to avoid is that intensive capacity is exploited. We do not have an overview of the current level in Sweden, but we see that the Swedish healthcare system is in a very demanding situation.

– At the same time, we see that a huge effort is being made in the Swedish health service, says Guldvog.

What I read shakes me

– A test of patience

Jon Henrik Laake, chief physician of the intensive care unit at Rikshospitalet, believes that the situation in Sweden illustrates how vulnerable the health service is with an intensive care capacity as low as we have in the Nordic countries.

– The capacity of Norwegian intensive care units is poor. Without good road options and a good deal of luck, the situation with us could have been like Sweden, he tells Dagbladet.

Laake believes that the pandemic is a test of patience for the health service.

– We handle many very sick patients for many months at a time. This erodes human resources and affects the ability of healthcare professionals to provide the best treatment. During the pandemic, we see a connection between pressure on the health service and mortality among those infected.

– People seem to shit on him.

– It has no reserve capacity

Since February this year, a total of 351 patients have been admitted to the intensive care unit for COVID-19 in Norway, according to the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Figures updated over the last 24 hours show that 132 have been admitted with tested covid-19 in Norway, and 22 of them are receiving invasive ventilator treatment.

– Does Norway have the ability to help Sweden? Should they ask for help?

– I said in March that we have no reserve capacity in Norwegian intensive care units, and I still believe it. No substantial steps have been taken to improve staff resources, says the Norwegian superior.

– Covid-19 patients who end up in hospital often have severe acute pulmonary insufficiency syndrome (ARDS), which is one of the most difficult to treat in an intensive care unit. So it goes without saying that this requires experienced and competent staff, he explains.

Short term assistance

Health Minister Bent Høie says he considers the Swedish health service to be similar to the Norwegian one.

– This means that there is a lot of capacity in the Swedish health service, even in demanding times like today. Any assistance is provided at the request of the Swedish authorities. There is a constant and close dialogue with our Swedish neighbors at all levels.

Kent (47): spent 61 days on a respirator

The Nordic countries have entered into a separate health contingency agreement.

– Upon request and on short notice, you can trigger various types of assistance and assistance, says the Minister of Health and adds:

– Many countries have had, and still have, significantly higher and higher infection pressures in hospitals than Norway. Norway has therefore assisted other European countries on several occasions, including sending health teams. The teams are made up of 20-25 nurses, doctors and logistics personnel. These come from hospitals scattered across the country, and the burden on each individual hospital is small.