Fears longer queues if emergency room cooperation is stopped

– This is going backwards into the future, says Saliba Korkunc (H).

Oslo’s health council fears longer queues and poorer services after a government decision that challenges the emergency room model in Oslo and Bergen.

There, the municipality and Oslo University Hospital (Ous) run the emergency department together.

It is against the regulations, believes Helfo, who among other things, looks after the use of public health crowns.

– It is more than enough challenges in the healthcare system to address, rather than start to stir up what works very wellsays a frustrated Korkunc.

May be a change in the law

He believes that what is important is what is best for the patient. And gets a lot of support from the government:

– For patients, it matters little who helps, says State Secretary Karl Kristian Bekeng (Ap).

Bekeng boasts of the way Oslo has organized the emergency room.

– Better interaction and cooperation, as the big city ambulance service is a good example of, are part of future solutions in our joint health service, he says.

The government wants more of this kind of collaboration between hospitals and municipalities.

But according to the state’s own body, emergency room cooperation in Oslo is therefore against the law.

Now Bekeng is open to a change in the law.

The Helfo decision has been appealed to something called Helseklage. In the first instance, the government is waiting for the result from there.

– Following the treatment, we will consider whether there is a need to make changes to the regulations, says Bekeng.

Politically determined

The emergency room is located under the orthopedic clinic at Ous. Clinic manager Rolf Bjarne Riise wonders what the point of public rules is:

– The intention must be what is best for the patient and society, he says.

And therefore the law must be changed if Helfo’s view prevails, he believes. And gets support from Oslo’s health council:

– Yes, in that case the Storting should definitely do that, says Korkunc.

He expects a solution that ensures that cooperation in the capital can continue.

The alternative is that the emergency room in Oslo will have to change operations, he fears.

So that hundreds of patients first have to queue at the municipal emergency room. And then sent on to the Ous emergency room just across the hall.

– So that is why you have to find a solution to this. You can’t choose that solution, says boss Knut Melhuus at the emergency medical service.