13 out of 20 nurses at the paediatric surgery department at Lund University Hospital have resigned, reports SVT News Skåne. The staff are warning of high workload and 24-hour shifts.
The 13 anaesthetic and operating theatre nurses are set to leave the department after the summer, but the region hopes to change their minds with the help of better schedules and lower workload.
According to previous information from SVT, 70 per cent of anaesthetic nurses and 50 per cent of operating theatre nurses are missing from the workforce. A problem that was highlighted by the Work Environment Authority last summer.
At the time, the Work Environment Authority pointed out that the staff were showing symptoms of high workload and that the employer had not made any improvements.
The staff also claim to have lower salaries than in other departments.
Together with the university hospitals in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Uppsala, Lund is responsible for highly specialised paediatric surgery in Sweden.
The shortage of staff has led to the hospital in Lund sending children to other hospitals for operations for some time now. The number is expected to increase.
