. They're crowded, and flu season is coming.
At internal coordination meetings between hospitals in the South East of the country, hospital management is considering whether they can move patients from the intensive care unit to a lower level of treatment. All hospitals report overload in the intensive care unit.
Hospitals are overcrowded, some can only help to ease the burden on others
This fall, hospitals in the South East of the country are organizing weekly intensive care coordination meetings. Capacity in hospitals is small and meeting records show that hospitals help each other see patients. At the meeting on Thursday, it was stated that there are various cases of COVID in the region. Akershus universitetssykehus and Oslo universitetssykehus have the greatest load. Akershus universitetssykehus had 20 patients in intensive care on Thursday morning.
On Monday, reference was made to the statement that there are more and more COVID patients in most hospitals compared to last week. The vast majority of hospitals do well, but there is little they can do. Only Kalnes (Østfold Hospital) and possibly Kristiansand can help to ease the burden on other medical facilities.
It was also asked if patients could be transferred from the intensive care unit to other departments and treated with an Optiflow insert. It is worth adding that this solution is already used in many hospitals.
Hospitals have long had performance issues
The chair of the intensive care group at the Norwegian Nurses Association, Paula Lykke, says she receives inquiries from members as to whether she knows how sick patients are in regular wards, rather than in intensive care.
- This is because all beds are occupied in intensive care units. We've been reporting performance issues for many years, says Lykke.
Earlier, she described the situation as a living nightmare during the pandemic.
- Nobody knew what the situation would look like. But the lack of nurses in intensive care is not surprising. We've been announcing it for years, Lykke said.
Treatment of other patients is postponed
Representatives of 18 out of 20 hospitals met at the coordination meeting on Thursday. The talks focused on high hospital occupancy, high absenteeism due to illness and the great need to postpone other surgical procedures. One hospital reported as much as a 40 percent reduction in various procedures in the hospital.
These activities are aimed at transferring employees to the intensive care unit. Subsequently, intensive care operations should be postponed, as the intensive care unit is currently used by patients with respiratory diseases.
The hospitals in Vestre Viken, which are located in Drammen, Ringerike, Notodden and Kongsberg, have experienced high absenteeism due to illness and intensive occupancy in the intensive care unit.
Notodden Hospital, part of Telemark Hospital, has reported a widespread epidemic of infection among staff and inpatients. Excessive numbers of patients are redirected to Skien.
- In many places, employees are very tired these days. This is reflected, inter alia, in their high absence due to illness, writes the chairman of the meeting.
and the flu is coming
There are currently patients in hospitals with the delta virus variant. No one infected with omicron has so far become ill enough to require hospitalization. However, according to the protocol, the first two flu patients were admitted. One hospital reported a patient with the flu in an intensive care unit. Another has a flu patient in an ordinary ward.
According to the National Institute of Public Health, about 2017 flu patients were admitted to the hospital in the 2018-7600 season. About two-thirds of them were over 60 years of age. In 2017-2018, 1800 people died of influenza.
Nowadays, hospitals are very concerned about how large this flu season will be.
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Photo: Joakim Fjeldli / NTB
