17,000 patients consigned to the corridor in four months

patientsPatients: photo: pixabay.com

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Despite Health Minister Bent Høies’ goal of zero “corridor patients” in 2016, over 17,000 patients have had to settle for a bed in a corridor in the first four months of this year.

Figures from the Directorate of Health show that 1.4 percent of patients in Norwegian hospitals had to lie in a bed in a corridor. This represents 17, 294 patients, said the newspaper Dagsavisen.

In January, Health Minister Bent Høie was clear that the goal must be to eliminate this practice.

‘The numbers have been reduced, and when I made the mission in January, giving the goal of no “corridor patients”, of course I hadn’t expected that hospitals would fail to resolve the mission within four months,’ Høie said.

From January to April, the five hospitals with the largest percentage of such patients were Stord hospital in Helse Fonna (3.9 percent), Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital in Oslo (3.7 percent), Kongsberg and Ringerike Hospital in Vestre Viken and Sykehuset i Harstad at the University Hospital of North Norway, both with 3.6 percent.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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