In one year, the patient ombudsman in Oslo has received 71 complaints about health centers in Oslo. Now several politicians are asking to increase staffing. – I feel that we deliver on life and health. People get food, medicine and the care they should have. But maybe that’s the little extra we don’t have enough of. Holding someone’s hand who is anxious, for example. We must always run forward, says coordinating nurse Hanne Solum at Ullern Health Center to news. Earlier this weekend, news discussed the case of Jan Sverre Borander, who was hospitalized at Ullern Health Center in January this year. There, both he and his relatives experienced what they describe as gross neglect. Avisa Oslo has also discussed the conditions at the health center in the west of Oslo. At Ullern Health Center, there are 96 patients distributed over 4 departments, with 24 patients in each department. During the day, they have 7 employees who will look after the patients in each department. In addition, they have 2–3 physiotherapists and 1 doctor per department. On night shift, there are 6 employees working on 96 patients. 1 assistant nurse per department with 24 patients and 2 nurses who are spread over 96 patients. Ullern Helsehus has recently been mentioned in several media for what the survivors believe is a failure in the treatment of their family members. Photo: Kristoffer Steffensen Lenes / news Solum believes the nurses manage to do their most important tasks, even with such low staffing. But she says you always go home from work and feel you should have done more in caring for the patients. – It is important to point out that it is a political system. It is where the decisions are made. We at Ullern Helsehus do not sit with the decision on that. The politicians and the nursing home agency must take their responsibility there. And in this I think they may not have taken this responsibility seriously. Calling for a norm There are no statutory requirements for staffing in nursing homes and health centers today. According to the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken, management must ensure that nursing home staffing is sufficient to ensure proper operation. It is too bad, believes Lill Sverresdatter Larsen of the Nurses’ Association. Lill Sverresdatter Larsen, head of the Norwegian Nurses Association, says that low staffing at health centers is a well-known problem. Photo: Halldor Asvall She is calling for a staffing standard, and for the politicians to take responsibility for the low staffing in nursing homes. The union leader believes that the problems that news has highlighted at Ullern Health Center are not unique. Neither in Oslo nor in Norway. – There is a lack of staffing which means that employees have to run from one critical situation to another. There are certainly no bad attitudes on the part of the employees, she says and adds: – This is a business, management and leadership responsibility, and not something that should fall on the few employees who do the best they can. Low staffing, she says, means that nursing home staff have to make tough priorities on a daily basis. – You can, for example, have a person with a full nappy, another who has signs of low blood sugar, someone who is in danger of falling. In addition, you must give medicine to dying patients. It goes without saying that it is almost impossible with such a small staff for so many patients, says Larsen to news. Ullern Helsehus has recently been mentioned in several media for what the survivors believe is a failure in the treatment of their family members. Photo: Kristoffer Steffensen Lenes / news Responding to patient follow-up In one year, 71 complaints have been received by the Patient Ombudsman at the health centers in Oslo. – The patients say they are not adequately followed up when the needs arise. It takes a long time, longer than expected, when patients call for help, says patient and user representative in Oslo, Anna Ryymin. Anna Ryymin in the patient and user ombudsman in Oslo says that it takes a long time before patients call for help. Photo: Nadir Alam / news She is strongly affected by the issues that have come up about Ullern Health Center in recent days. – Here the relatives and the patient have been in a very difficult situation. It’s not the way it should be, says Ryymin. Director of the Nursing Home Agency, Helge Jagmann, regrets that some patients experience things that are not good enough. “Unfortunately, both small and large mistakes happen at the health centres,” says Jagmann. He believes there should have been more than 71 complaints from 10,000 seriously ill patients who have been treated at the health centers in the past two years. – Many people find the threshold too high when they want to complain. Efforts are therefore being made to make it even easier to complain. We need all feedback in our continuous work to strengthen quality. Director of the Nursing Home Agency, Helge Jagmann, regrets that some patients experience things that are not good enough. Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news Oslo Health Council Robert Steen writes in an e-mail sent via city council secretary Nasir Ahmed that the situation at Ullern Health Center is not acceptable. – At Oslo Health Center there are approx. 5,000 patients a year. It’s not the number of complaints that worries me, because there aren’t very many. What worries me is whether our elderly will be looked after well enough, writes Steen. The city council further writes that he has now ordered an external review of the health centres, in addition to several other measures also aimed specifically at Ullern Health Centre. The opposition parties want answers The Conservative Party, Liberal Party and KrF have called in health councilor Robert Steen (Ap) to a hearing in the city council, which will probably take place in January. Høyre’s Eirik Lae Solberg says 71 complaints in almost two years is a very high number. They demand an answer from health councilor Robert Steen. He points out that the health centers should be an offer for weak residents who need to come to the care facilities because they cannot be at home. Høyre’s Eirik Lae Solberg says it is important that there is enough staffing so that people get better from being in a health center, and not worse. Photo: Ahmad Dean / news – When they get worse from being at home, I think it upsets us all. When patients ask for help and don’t get it, you have to strengthen staffing, says Lae Solberg. – Is this justifiable? – That doesn’t sound reasonable. It is important that there is enough staffing so that people get better from being in a health center, and not worse. The way the offer has been at Ullern Health Center is not good enough and we have to do something about that.
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The patient ombudsman has received 71 complaints about health centers – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
