– If I had stood at the back of the public health queue, I would have been disabled today. That’s what Helene Ommundsen (68) from Stavanger says as she looks up from her desk at work. In the winter of 2022, she visited the healthcare system with a sore hip, but was told to wait a little for the operation. But when summer came, she was in so much pain that she had to use crutches. – I just got worse and worse and lay awake at night and couldn’t sleep. The solution was to contact the private hospital Aleris a few months later. Here, the X-rays showed bone to bone, and surgery was urgently needed. Helene Ommundsen (68) is back at work after hip surgery at the private operator Aleris in Stavanger. – I feel sorry for those who cannot pay themselves. A lot of people are suffering, she says. Photo: Cathrine Oftedahl / news But by this time, Helse Vest had ended the cooperation agreement with Aleris and the other private players in the region. Ommundsen could no longer be operated on the public quota. Moved back in the queue The result was that she moved back in the long, public queue. She wasn’t the only one. 670 patients lost their treatment offer at the private operator when the agreement was cancelled. Ommundsen chose to use his savings and pay NOK 130,000 to have his hip operated on. – I couldn’t take it anymore, it was very painful. I couldn’t walk either. My life was very limited, she says. The number of patients in the public health care queue has increased by 42 per cent over the past seven years. In 2016, 175,000 patients were in the health care queue, compared to 250,000 in 2022, according to figures from the Directorate of Health’s National Quality Indicator. The average waiting time from receiving a referral to starting healthcare in the specialist healthcare service was 58 days in 2016, compared to 68 days in 2022. It is somatic patients who have to wait the longest. They have to wait 71 days on average. On Friday, the Støre government will put forward proposals for the state budget for 2024. – The private hospitals have capacity Managing director Karita Bekkemellem of NHO Geneo (health industry, welfare and upbringing) expects measures to cut healthcare queues through increased cooperation with private hospitals. Managing director of NHO Geneo, Karita Bekkemellem. Photo: Anne Elisabeth Næss / Anne Elisabeth Næss – Patients stand in an unnecessary queue for years. This costs the individual a poorer quality of life and poorer health. In addition, we know that the costs to society are significant, she says. She believes that new steps should be taken with a private and public collaboration where the patient’s best interest is the focus. – We know that the pressure on the hospitals is absolutely enormous, and we believe that earmarking the money on the hospital budgets is absolutely necessary. She points out that the private hospitals have a large capacity that can line up immediately. – But then we must also expect the government to facilitate concrete agreements. Will phase out the private actors The government has signaled that it will phase out the private actors from the public health service. In the autumn of 2022, a committee was set up to look at how this should happen. – We see that the health institutions have taken the signals. The consequences will be record long waiting times, says Anita Tunold, director of Aleris. Aleris offers healthcare services throughout the country, both private and public, but it is the private share of the services that is growing. Anita Tunold, CEO of Aleris. Photo: Aleris – We are experiencing that healthcare organizations buy fewer services from us, despite the fact that the need is there, and that there are long waiting lists. In areas where we have specialist expertise and can help, for example in orthopedics and gynecological surgery, there are waiting times of up to two years, says Tunold. The record-long waiting times at the public hospitals means that Aleris has had 35 per cent more private patients so far this year, compared to the same period last year. – We are happy for all patients who choose to come to us, but would like to help even more patients on behalf of the public hospitals, so that it is not the patient’s wallet that determines whether they get the treatment they need. Here, Aleris can help stop the development towards a two-part health service that no one wants, says Tunold. State Secretary Truls Vasvik in the Ministry of Health and Care Services says that they are positive about collaboration with private actors, as long as this takes place on the terms of our joint health service. State Secretary Truls Vasvik in the Ministry of Health and Care. Photo: JOHN-ANDRE SAMUELSEN / news – We do not want private actors to be able to establish themselves freely and drain local hospitals of resources. He points out that the regional health organizations have extensive and good cooperation with private players. In 2023, they have planned for the purchase of services for approximately NOK 16 billion. Back to work Ommundsen was on sick leave for periods before the operation. After the operation, she has a good life without pain, and she is back at work. But she reacts to the fact that the public sector chose to terminate the agreement with the private hospital when they had no opportunity to help her and others in the same situation. – I feel sorry for those who have to pay it themselves, because not everyone has the opportunity. They get sicker and sicker and eventually sick leave. Ultimately, it goes beyond the public domain, she believes.
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NHO wants public quota back at private hospitals – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
