The matter in summary Finnmarkshykehuset has decided to close down almost all operations at Klinikk Alta. It has caused reactions. Irene Ojala in Patient Focus believes Alta should be used as a safe harbor when storms and closed roads make the hospital in Hammerfest inaccessible. Several professionals are critical of the decision, and believe it will lead to increased pressure on Hammerfest hospital, longer waiting lists and patient flight. It has been uncertain whether ear-nose-throat operations will also be removed from Klinikk Alta, but they are currently protected. Director of Finnmark Hospital, Ole Hope, has argued for the day surgery to be moved to Hammerfest in order to strengthen the emergency hospital there. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – That after two hurricanes in Finnmark, where all activity in Hammerfest was down, you choose to shut down almost all operations in Alta, where the diet has not touched the stairs, it is completely incomprehensible. That’s what Irene Ojala, Storting politician for Patient Focus, says. From next week, there will be an end to all orthopedic operations at Klinikk Alta. This is confirmed by Finnmarkssykehuset’s director of communications, Eirik Palm, to news. The decision from the management of the health company comes two weeks before the board has made a final decision on whether the department should be moved to Hammerfest. It is also only at the board meeting on 27 February that a risk and vulnerability analysis will be presented, which the board ordered before Christmas. Irene Ojala from Patient Focus is fighting for health care in Finnmark from the Storting bench. Photo: Synnøve Sundby Fallmyr / news Confirms full patient lists Houman Charani is a surgeon at Finnmark Hospital and is deeply disappointed by what he believes is a hasty decision. He repeatedly refers to the storms that recently closed the road into Hammerfest, where the emergency hospital is located. – While the storm raged in Finnmark and no operations could be performed at Hammerfest Hospital, we operated on 15 patients at Klinikk Alta, he says. He and other professionals believe it would not make sense to move the business from Finnmark’s largest city Alta to Hammerfest. – If the day surgery in Alta is closed, there will be increased pressure on Hammerfest hospital, and probably even longer waiting lists here, says cancer surgeon Bernt Engebretsen. He works at Hammerfest Hospital and says that they operate at full capacity all year round. – We operate planned operations every day throughout the week, in addition to immediate help in the evenings and at weekends, says the cancer surgeon. Houman Charani has repeatedly spoken out against the management. He fears the demolition of an offer he believes benefits both patients and staff. Photo: Hanne Larsen / news He says that they also occasionally have to undergo emergency operations during the day or in the trauma unit, which means that they have to postpone the planned operation programme. – I do not know whether the management has included this in the calculation. In Alta, we can operate undisturbed and not risk having the planned operations postponed, he says. Houman Charani says that Klinikk Alta has both available operating personnel and an operating theater that is available 40 weeks a year. news has asked to know how long the waiting time is for the various operations in Hammerfest. Finnmarkshykehuset has not yet responded. The proposal to close the day surgery in Alta came as a bolt from the blue to the staff at the clinic. This happened when Helse Nord sent out its plans for restructuring in the autumn. While Helse Nord, for its part, assured that nothing had been decided until after the proposals had been out for broad consultation, Finnmarkssykehuset has chosen to skip these processes. More offers may fail There has been uncertainty about whether ear-nose-throat operations will also be removed from Klinikk Alta. For now, these operations are protected, but nothing is certain. – We want to turn over all stones, says Eirik Palm, head of communications at Finnmarkssykehuset. Director of Communications at Finnmark Hospital, Eirik Palm, says that they are turning over all stones when it comes to getting control of the deficit of over 100 million. Photo: Andre Bendixen / news In Alta, over the past twenty years, a staff with local roots has been built up, which has managed to provide a stable offer to orthopedic patients. – The whole idea of building up in Alta was to relieve Hammerfest, so that they could take home more trauma patients from UNN and concentrate on acute and other major operations, says Thoralf Enge, enterprise union representative at Finnmarkssykehuset. He has warned that there will be no savings, but on the contrary an exodus of patients from Finnmark if Alta is shut down and the patients transferred to Hammerfest. Various reasons for closure Director of Finnmarkssykehuset, Ole Hope from Bergen, started in the job in September. He promised at a board meeting before Christmas that he would get the financially crisis-hit company on track. First, he justified the decision to close the day surgery with the fact that this would result in a saving of 13 million. The figure was then adjusted down to between 5 and 7 million. Now Hope is arguing that the day surgery should be moved to Hammerfest to strengthen the emergency hospital there. Ole Hope is trying to get control of the finances in Finnmarkssykehuset. Photo: Silje Thalberg / news During the board meeting that news followed, Hope pointed out that far more shoulder patients are operated on in Finnmark than in the Oslo area. He said bluntly that the surgeons in Finnmark operate on people unnecessarily often. – This is downright nonsensical and a vote of no confidence in me and my colleagues, says Houman Charani. He says that Finnmark Hospital has participated in professional audits, where it has been concluded that shoulder surgery is in line with national guidelines and that the statistical differences are dependent on other factors. – How much do surgeons gasping for air cost Irene Ojala in Patient Focus hopes that Finnmark Hospital in its assessments calculates what it costs when the operating theaters in Hammerfest are shut down as a result of storms and storms. – How much does it cost to have surgeons walking and gasping for air while they wait for them to operate, asks the politician in the Storting. In 2021, Alta received earmarked funds for a new operating theater in Alta. Then the tone was that the offer should be built up, not down. Outwardly, there was a pleasant tone between Storting politician Irene Ojala and the director of Finnmarkssykehuset, Ole Hope, when they met in Alta in January. Photo: Stian Strøm / news A feasibility analysis carried out by Finnmarkssykehuset on behalf of Helse Nord showed that investing in Alta was both economically and health-wise beneficial. However, a risk analysis showed that if one built up in Alta, it could affect recruitment to Hammerfest Hospital. As news has discussed previously, the reports were thus put away, and the conclusions kept secret from media that wanted access. – Pure order work Before Christmas, the orthopedic part of the day surgery was to be closed down. After the board was unable to reach unanimity, it was decided to take a foot in the ground. The director commissioned a risk and vulnerability analysis, which will determine whether there is anything in the way of moving the day surgery from Alta to Hammerfest. – This is a purely commissioned work from the director’s side, says Houman Charani. He believes the analysis is rigged to fulfill the wishes of the director to close down the activity in Alta. – What was a proper risk and vulnerability analysis was the previous analysis. The one who was slandered and put in a drawer. We don’t need a new analysis, he says. Eirik Palm denies that they rigged the analysis. He says that all the questions asked about waiting lists, possible patient flight and other financial matters will be highlighted in the report.
ttn-69
Surgeons and professionals despair that Klinikk Alta is being robbed for operations – news Troms and Finnmark
