Thousands of tourists are on their way to Gotland – where the hospital has been forced to reduce the number of hospital beds. Temporary staff are rejecting Visby and cancer patients from the island may need to travel to Stockholm for surgery.
It feels uncomfortable to have to accept fewer hospital beds during the summer, says Regina Göbel, chairman of the Gotland Medical Association.
In the last minute, Region Gotland is fighting to be able to offer emergency care to islanders and tourists. Normally, they scale up, fill up with extra staff at the emergency department, and all hospital beds are kept open. This is necessary since the island's healthcare is adapted to 60,000 residents – a stark contrast to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit during the summer.
But this year, the staff sounded the alarm even before it started. Some have quit. The day before Midsummer, two managers submitted their resignations, citing "the situation at the hospital", according to Hela Gotland.
At the same time, the hospital went into crisis mode.
Causes concern
The background is a staff shortage that has forced the region to reduce the number of hospital beds by merging two departments, surgery and orthopedics, into one. The two specialties now share both premises and staff – which has created concern among the merged staff group.
They cannot take care of each other's patients, are afraid of making mistakes, and it feels patient-unsafe.
"We have just been thrown into this without introduction", writes an employee to TT.
But according to hospital manager Anna-Clara Collén, the summer is not in danger:
We will be able to offer patient-safe healthcare to those who need it. However, some of the measures taken affect patient safety negatively.
Fewer hospital beds have also led to cancelled operations.
"Every morning, patients come for planned operations, such as cancer. But there is no room, so they sit in the dayroom. After a few hours, they are told, no operation today", writes the hospital employee to TT.
It feels uncomfortable to have to accept a reduced number of hospital beds, says Regina Göbel, chairman of the Gotland Medical Association.
Since cancer surgery is considered emergency care, cancer patients from Gotland may be asked to travel to Stockholm for surgery if they cannot be operated on in Visby, according to Göbel.
Temporary staff reject
It is now difficult to get in additional staff. Visby, which used to be popular among temporary staff, is being rejected by temporary nurses.
It is not economically viable. According to our calculations, there will only be 15 kronor left per hour after all expenses are deducted, says Cecilia Svanlind Thörn from the Swedish Association of Temporary Nurses.
In addition, there is the high workload during the summer.
