Pharmacies report antibiotic shortage

Norwegians are still coping with a butter shortage and now face an antibiotic shortage. An outbreak of pneumonia last year led to heavy demand for the most commonly prescribed antibiotic, erythromycin, and pharmacies have since either run low or out of supplies. Newspaper Aftenposten reported Monday that the shelves may be bare until late March or [...]

Embattled boss won’t go on leave

Bente Mikkelsen, head of the embattled state health agency that’s pushing through a controversial hospital reorganization in Oslo, has dropped plans to take off for five months in Rome, to attend a leadership course. While many of Mikkelsen’s opponents think she does need more leadership training, their fury sunk her plans for an all-expenses-paid absence. [...]

Unusual baby boom baffles experts

There’s been a major boom in the numbers of babies born in Oslo and Akershus County before their mothers get to a hospital. Researchers are so puzzled by the boom that they’ve launched a study to find out what’s behind it. Newspaper Aftenposten reports that around 450 babies were born in the Oslo area last [...]

Trusted adviser tackles ‘toughest’ job

One of the most trusted advisers to embattled Health Minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen was taking over one of the Norwegian health sector’s toughest jobs on Wednesday. Dr Bjørn Erikstein, the new director of Oslo University Hospital, backs Strøm-Erichsen’s controversial merger of Oslo’s largest hospitals but promises to listen to staff complaints. Erikstein is a physician and [...]

Another hospital protest in Oslo

Demonstrators gathered in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo once again this week, to protest the controversial merger of the capital’s largest hospitals. The merger continues to spark complaints from health care personnel and patients alike. It was organized by employee organizations at Aker Hospital, which is set to be closed, along with support [...]

Norway tops in cancer survival

After months of crisis headlines about Norwegian hospitals comes some good news: Norwegian cancer patients have among the highest survival rates in the world. A new report from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) also ranks Norwegian cancer patients’ survival rates as the highest in Europe. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Tuesday that no [...]

United opposition demands hospital merger ‘time-out’

The leaders of the four main opposition parties in parliament have called for a “time-out” in the highly painful process of merging Oslo’s biggest hospitals into the single giant Oslo Universitetssykehus (OUS). They claimed at joint press conference Monday that the controversial merger is spinning health care in the capital “out of control.” Siv Jensen [...]

More trouble for Oslo’s biggest hospital

Oslo University Hospital, already struggling with a highly controversial restructuring that’s pitted staff against administrators and politicians, now faces a deteriorating physical plant as well. A new study claims it will cost billions to make necessary improvements, at a time when budgets are being slashed. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported last week that the hospital [...]

State seeks to cure hospital crisis

Health Minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen has made another attempt to cure what’s widely viewed as an extremely unhealthy merger of Oslo’s major hospitals. She’s brought in a new chairman for the merged entity, Oslo University Hospital, from Bergen. Stener Kvinnsland, age 63, will take over after helping guide a major reorganization of health care delivery systems [...]

Norwegians dropping visits to the dentist

The fear of dentists is called “tannlegeskrekk” in Norwegian, and it seems that either many are infected with it, or they’re not willing to pay relatively high rates for dental care, which isn’t covered by the national health care system. New figures from state statistics bureau SSB and KOSTRA, a municipal statistics service, show that [...]

Sparks fly over new anti-smoking proposals

Norway’s left-center government wants to further crack down on smoking and is proposing a string of measures to tighten existing laws. Smokers and even some non-smokers are fired up over what they see as another regulatory assault. Current laws have banned or highly restricted smoking indoors for years. Now newspaper Dagsavisen reports that the government [...]

Crisis meeting called over hospitals

Health Minister Anne-Grethe Strøm-Erichsen called in those responsible for the administration of Oslo’s largest hospitals early Friday morning, after another week of conflict pegged to their massive reorganization. Serious concerns continue to be raised about the consequences of the reorganization on patient care. The “extraordinary” meeting was called after representatives of all the professional organizations [...]

Hospital conflict level rises

An ongoing conflict over the massive reorganization of Oslo’s largest hospitals has intensified, after the employee representatives of several organizations for health care workers said they had no confidence in the leader of the state agency in charge. “Bente Mikkelsen, leader of Helse Sør-Øst, no longer has any credibility,” was the message this week from [...]

New report slams hospital care

Patients get lost in the system, aren’t called in for important check-ups, face treatment delays and don’t get the information they need about their condition. These are some of the conclusions in a scathing new report on hospitals in southeastern Norway. The report, conducted by auditors for Helse Sør-Øst, the state administrative agency in charge [...]

Hospital error ‘unacceptable’

Opposition politicians are once again hammering the left-center government’s health care policies, after hearing the story about a hospital in Oslo that forgot to call in a nine-year-old cancer patient for important monitoring of his condition. They called his resulting wait “completely unacceptable.” “It’s been a year since I asked the health minister to come [...]

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