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In this context, Citysjukhuset 7+ is a small hospital, with 22 doctors connected, and according to the chief doctor Anders Nordqvist, they receive between 25,000 and 27,000 visits per year.
The hospital has a recently renovated operating room, which was established after signing a two-year care agreement with the region in 2018.
– It was a cost of 5-6 million and that is why it was very important for us that the agreement delivered what was intended, says Anders Nordkvist.
In a letter to the region health management, addressed, among others, to the director of health and medical care Ann Söderström, emphasizes a mismatch between what the agreement establishes and how many opportunities for care it has actually generated.
The deal was prompted by a recruitment and the award decision declared a value of approximately SEK 19 million. So far, says Anders Nordkvist, Citysjukhuset has only received referrals for treatments worth SEK 8.5 million.
– This means that just under eleven million are unused and, of course, it is problematic for us, who had planned to complete the deal. And that is problematic for those patients who are still waiting.
The agreement applies to the care of the ears, nose and throat., for example tonsillectomies and nasal surgeries of various types. The processing time to start the deal, Anders Nordkvist says, spanned nearly two years, and he generally describes the collaboration as slow.
– I think up to two years is a long time, especially when it comes to queuing because people have waited so long. There is a law on the guarantee of care, but there is no real sanction around it, so it is not followed in the way it would have been done otherwise, says Anders Nordkvist.
In this Citysjukhuset +7 operating room, there is capacity that is not used, even though the money has already been withdrawn from the region, according to a letter to the hospital’s regional management.
Photo: Lars Näslund
The alarms about a growing surgical debt, accelerated by the corona pandemic, are being heard with increasing frequency. In the Västra Götaland region alone, tens of thousands of people are queuing for surgery, some of whom have been waiting for specialized care for more than the 90 days stipulated in the care guarantee.
Anders Nordkvist strongly questions why the region does not use the capacity where it is located and wonders if the administrative manager of the region cares about the best interests of patients.
– What we think is crazy is that we cannot be used the way they would use us. In other words, we have received promises to have two tonsil surgeries a month for the remaining months. It is a larval assignment since according to the agreement we can handle 300 operations. We have always received very little allowance. We don’t understand why, says Anders Nordkvist.
Levi Siljemyr is the coach for the production and care control unit acquired in the Västra Götaland region. He tells DN that they have multiple care arrangements that aren’t being used as intended from the start
– We believe that it is problematic and we have observed that we have not used all the agreements to the fullest. That is why we have strengthened the work during the year by establishing a care guarantee service, as we call it, which helps guide patients, among other things, to private care providers but also to others from our own hospitals, says Levi Siljemyr.
The agreement with Citysjukhuset was signed in 2018. Why is it almost two years before it generates real care opportunities?
– Especially now we have large queues for both visits and surgeries where you need help and this is where we work very hard to make sure patients get to where there is capacity for care. But it is also about that it must match the capacity of the care providers and the content of the agreement, says Levi Siljemyr and continues:
– Historically it has been carried out as an individual assessment of each administration to which patients are referred. And that is what we are changing this year. We have had very intense work to strengthen flows to private care providers, but we have much more to do there.
Anders Nordkvist emphasizes that in the agreement with the region there is a fine that affects the Municipal Hospital in the event that what the agreement refers to is not complied with.
– But there is no corresponding fine unless the region can guarantee that we have enough operations to carry out.
Also read: Healthcare debt grows during corona pandemic
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