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Lack of staff can be a problem for hospitals. At the Oslo University Hospital, 149 employees are under quarantine.
Tight and tight bandages and protection. Nurses across the country are preparing for a new wave of corona patients. Photo: Olav Olsen
Prime Minister Erna Solberg fears the health service will collapse. It came up at Thursday’s press conference and is the main reason for the many measures it is implementing. You want to prevent many people from entering the hospital at the same time.
Difficult conditions for nurses
Lill Sverresdatter Larsen is also concerned about a pressured healthcare system. She is the union leader of the Norwegian Nurses Association.
The most seriously ill coronary patients will need intensive care. This leads to a higher workload for nurses. Long shifts on the total infection control team are demanding.
– But we are trained for this, and the health service is, in many ways, better prepared than this spring. We now know more about the disease and are better equipped on the team side, says Sverresdatter Larsen.
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– The authorities must do everything possible to take the best care of nurses, so that they retain and hire vital skills. So it takes more than just a “pep talk,” says Lill Sverresdatter Larsen. Photo: Dan P. Neegaard
– In a new marathon
Still, she’s worried. There is still a shortage of nurses. In particular, he believes the lack of intensive care nurses is serious.
– Now they will enter a new marathon with several seriously ill patients.
The union leader believes that capacity must be increased and that temporary solutions can be detrimental. You fear that you will find yourself in a stressful situation in a few weeks.
– We must prevent students studying for this vital competence from falling behind in their training.
Must postpone operations
Bent Høie cautions that you should ask hospitals to postpone planned operations if many are admitted with COVID-19.
That doesn’t reassure Sverresdatter Larsen. Patients admitted to intensive care units should be managed by specialized ventilator therapy nurses.
– Not everyone who performs a planned treatment has that knowledge, he says.
Almost 250,000 patients await hospital treatment. The number will increase if more operations are postponed. Photo: Paul S. Amundsen / Freelancer
Many patients are already waiting for treatment. In April, 274,000 patients were awaiting treatment.
- In August, the number dropped to more than 243,000.
- Waiting time at hospitals treating bodily injuries has increased by eight days, compared to the same period last year. Shows figures from the Norwegian Health Directorate.
- It is especially patients with orthopedic disorders who are at risk of having to wait.
Nakstad: Staff is a scarce resource
Health Espen Rostrup Nakstad Deputy Director agrees that staffing is a scarce resource.
All health service employees are already working full-time every day with patients who do not have covid-19.
Corona patients come in addition and require comprehensive infection control measures. Many must be placed in intensive care units.
– So understaffing quickly becomes a problem, even if you have enough infection control equipment and other medical equipment, Nakstad says.
He believes that a short-term solution is to postpone planned activity that is not as urgent as emergency treatment, cancer research, and COVID-19 treatment.
– All countries have had to rely on this, says Nakstad.
An entire hospital is already closed
At Health North, measures have already been implemented. Finnmark Hospital in Hammerfest does not accept patients other than those in need of emergency treatment. The hospital has been exposed to massive infections among its employees. The patients have been transferred to other hospitals in Helse Nord.
In this hospital, only emergency patients walk through the door Photo: Finnmark Hospital
Cecilie Daae is the CEO of the regional health authority. She says that they are preparing for a demanding situation in the future.
The biggest challenge is staff, competition and transportation.
– We try to maintain as much normal activity as we can. At the same time, we are preparing for the worst-case scenario, even though we are better equipped, among other things, with infection control equipment than before.
Also at the Oslo University Hospital (OUS), operations are proceeding normally.
On Tuesday, OUS had 11 hospitalized covid-19 patients. The hospital has 40 employees who are infected and 149 who have been quarantined.
– If the pandemic develops faster than FHI anticipates over the next three weeks, we should consider reducing planned activity, says Hilde Myhren. She is the medical director of OUS.
OUS has already reduced the activity in the Orthodontic Clinic today. Many of the employees are in quarantine.
Executive Director Grethe Aasved of St. Olav Hospital says they are prepared to receive heart patients with more serious illnesses.
