For a few days, a third of the beds at the hospital in Kristiansund are occupied by completely treated elderly people, who are too poor to make it home. These patients need a round-the-clock health service outside the hospital. Kristiansund municipality is not able to give them, says the health trust. – At times, it is on the verge of going beyond our emergency preparedness, so the fact that the municipality does not have the capacity to receive patients affects us to a very large extent, says Georg Johnsen. He is head of the clinic at Nordmøre og Romsdal Hospital and says the situation affects both patients and staff. – Our employees go to great lengths to make it work, and we need to hire extra people on almost every shift. Clinic manager Georg Johnsen is one of those who has written letters to Kristiansund municipality. Photo: Hans-Olav Landsverk / news Offers beds At the beginning of June, the health trust will therefore send a letter to the municipality. They describe a precarious situation and want an answer to one question: What plan has the municipality put in place to handle patients ready for discharge this summer? They also offer the municipality a bed post with a capacity for 10 patients for use this summer – as long as the municipality itself staffs it. – Do they think the municipality will accept the offer? – I have not received any feedback on that, but the summer is here now, so it does not look like that, says Johnsen. It was Tidens Krav who first mentioned the case. – No mess in reality Siv Iren Stormo Andersson in Kristiansund municipality, says the offer of beds so far is noble, but thinks it has no root in reality. – We strive to get enough holiday substitutes in our ordinary services, so staffing up a completely new department in a city we are not used to being in is completely impossible. Municipal manager for health, care and nursing in Kristiansund municipality, Siv Iren Stormo Andersson, believes that the debate will be too one-sided and that high occupancy at the hospital is not only due to patients ready for discharge. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news When it comes to the municipality’s plan for the summer, she replies that they buy hospital places with the neighboring municipalities as a short-term solution. In addition, they are working on a new hospital that will not be ready until 2026 at the earliest. – Our capacity is not good enough at the moment, we are honest about that. – Why has it taken so long to respond to the letter? – It is common with a three-week response deadline in the public sector and the letter came just before the Pentecost weekend. We have had illness in the house, so sometimes it takes us a little longer to respond. Desperate situation Hanne Haavde Stenseth is always in contact with relatives of those who stay in hospital longer than they need to. – They are desperate because they experience that their loved ones are not able to take care of their needs. Patient and user ombudsman in Møre og Romsdal, Hanne Haavde Stenseth. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news – It also entails an increased risk of deteriorating the health of the individual and may constitute a risk to patient safety. – That the municipality does not have an offer for these patients violates the dignity guarantee that will ensure people a meaningful and safe old age. The municipality replies that the health trust must take responsibility for safeguarding the dignity guarantee and patient safety of the patients all the time they are in the hospital. – I understand that an emergency hospital is not well enough adapted for, for example, demented patients, but the situation is unfortunately like this, says Andersson. Not unique The situation in Helse Møre og Romsdal is not unique. In a report, the Norwegian Directorate of Health writes that the number of discharge-ready bed days will increase throughout the country in 2021, after a decline from 2019 to 2020. Nevertheless, there are large differences between the health regions. – Health North and Health Central Norway have had a stronger increase, while Health West and Southeast has had a decline, says Helga Katharina Haug, acting division director in the Norwegian Directorate of Health. – This may indicate that the municipalities in Central Norway and in the North have several challenges in organizing the reception of patients ready for discharge from hospitals, but we do not have specific knowledge of what the increase is due to, she says. Refers to new collaboration plan – Unfortunately, this is a challenge in several places, both in Central Norway and in other parts of the country, says Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor). She says the government “will especially look at the transition between hospitals and municipal health services” when they are now working on a National Health and Interaction Plan. Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol. Photo: Torstein Bøe / Torstein Bøe – What concrete tools are we talking about giving the municipalities and local hospitals to improve the transition? – I want to say something about that when we present the interaction plan and when we have good, concrete answers to come up with.
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Patients ready for discharge will be hospitalized in Kristiansund – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio
