The matter in summary: An news investigation shows that 37 of 41 patients who reported sexual transgressive behavior did not receive any form of follow-up. Director of the Norwegian Health Authority, Sjur Lehmann, reacts to these figures and believes that it is obvious that there are people who need follow-up. Several patients said that they did not hear anything from the Norwegian Health Authority after being notified. More than half answered that they had suffered psychological problems after what they experienced. Lehmann says that the Norwegian Health Authority will now have an early conversation with those who report serious conditions, discuss whether they need help and that they will talk to the patient when the case has been completed. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. On Monday, news published a survey in which 41 patients told about the follow-up they received after reporting abuse from doctors. 37 of the 41 stated that they did not receive any form of follow-up afterwards. These figures cause the director of the Norwegian Health Authority to react. – I don’t think that’s good enough. I think it shows the importance that when we get this kind of message, then we have a conversation. In those conversations, it must be addressed whether people get the help they need, says Sjur Lehmann, director of the Norwegian Health Authority. Will develop the conversation The Norwegian Health Authority has the overall responsibility for supervisory matters in the health and care service. Lehmann says that the mandate of the inspectorate is primarily to follow up on the inspection case. In that job, he thinks follow-up of the patients may have been a little forgotten. – In some cases, the idea has probably been thought through. But we probably haven’t had any uniform practice, routine or built-in understanding that this is something we should also do, says Lehmann. Several of the patients that news spoke to in the investigation say that they did not hear anything from the Norwegian Health Authority after they were notified of sexually transgressive behavior from doctors. More than half answered that they had suffered psychological problems after what they experienced. The director of the Norwegian Health Authority believes that news’s investigation shows that they must improve on follow-up. – I wish that this was something that we as health authorities had been given an overview of ourselves, and earlier. It is obvious that there are people here who need follow-up, and that something must be done to help them, says Sjur Lehmann. This is how news worked with the investigation: When news worked on the project “Doctors in grey”, which was published in March, news came into contact with several patients who had notified the authorities about sexually transgressive behavior by doctors. In the conversations with the patients, one thing in particular was repeated: Many called for help from the healthcare system during and after the case. Based on this, news would investigate the allegations by talking to as many involved patients as possible. The health authorities are not aware that such an examination of patient follow-up has been carried out previously. news has asked the Norwegian Health Authority, state administrators and municipalities to pass on letters to patients in these cases. In this part of the project, news has contacted 158 patients. 86 of them did not answer. 72 people responded. 41 of the patients have chosen to answer a survey and several of them have agreed to an interview. The figures presented in this case come from the survey where these 41 have answered seven yes/no questions: Have you received follow-up/help after you spoke up? Have you suffered psychological problems after what you were exposed to? Would you say that you were in a vulnerable situation when this happened? Has what happened had a consequence for work/studies/family? Did you get compensation after the case? Was your case reported to the police? Has what you experienced caused trust in the healthcare system to weaken? news also asked the patients to elaborate on their answers if they wished, and several of them came forward for an interview with a desire to tell more. The survey is based on the patients’ self-reporting. In addition, news has documents from, among other things, supervisory authorities and courts in the various cases. According to him, it is now routine to have a conversation with patients and others who complain to the Norwegian Health Authority. – But I think there is reason to develop this further. And I believe that the earlier you have that conversation in a case, the more useful it will be. Now the director of the Norwegian Health Authority, Sjur Lehmann, wants them to talk to the patients both when the cases are reported and when they have been processed by the Norwegian Health Authority. Photo: Alexander Nordby / news Will show the way. Specifically, Lehmann points to the following change: – In that conversation, it must also be addressed whether the person in question gets the help they need. If the person in question answers no, we will use our knowledge of the healthcare system to give some good advice on where they can go. – You say that you want to tighten this up now. What is the background for that? – We see from the research you have done, experiences from individual cases and conversations with those involved, that this is an aspect of our case management that can be improved. Then I think it is natural that we adjust and make it better, Lehmann replies. He points out that it is important for the Norwegian Health Authority to find a balance where they ask some questions to help people further, but at the same time retain their independent role as an administrative body. – Because we cannot get away from the fact that the main task of the supervisory authority is to investigate the case. Learned from the Frosta case Lehmann says that they have also learned from the ongoing Frosta case, where doctor Arne Bye is now accused of raping 87 patients. – That case raises the question of whether those who have experienced this are looked after well enough, both by the supervisory authority and the healthcare system afterwards, says Sjur Lehmann. He says this is something the Norwegian Health Authority has worked on over time and will continue to do. Ida is one of the 41 patients news has spoken to in the survey. According to Ida, no one spoke to her or asked if she needed help after she disclosed the abuse in the doctor’s office. Ida hopes that the patient Frosta case will be followed up better than she herself experienced. – I hope they get support and help not only now that the trial is ongoing, but also when the case is over, she says. Hello! Do you have tips, other information or do you have a similar story? Then you can contact news’s journalists by e-mail or via encrypted message on Signal or Whatsapp. Tel: 992 99 332 More relevant articles and programs Give us your feedback Published 21.11.2024, at 16.31
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The Norwegian Health Authority reacts to the lack of follow-up after notification of abuse – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
