Healthcare in Västerbotten has just completed a new IVA department, which opens in Umeå today, Friday.

- Right now we have eleven places available, soon we will open 13 new places. We should be able to deliver on par with the worst case scenarios of the Public Health Authority, says Johan Thunberg, head of operations for intensive care in Västerbotten.

Stockholm is also expanding, today with, among other things, a new department at Karolinska in Huddinge where they are turning operating rooms into intensive care centers.

But the National Board of Health and Welfare cannot answer whether the places will suffice.

- It is strenuous especially in Stockholm and some other regions. All resources are spent on securing as many places as possible, says Johanna Sandwall, crisis management manager at the National Board of Health and Welfare.

Staff shortage biggest problem

While the number of intensive care units is increasing, the major challenge right now is to find staff who can staff the sites.

- We try to bring back staff with intensive care experience and fast-schooling them. Anesthetic nurses can assist. Then we look around, listen with private care providers, says Johan Thunberg.

In order to staff an intensive care unit, approximately one IVA nurse is usually required per patient, and a doctor of three. But already today, the staff is thinly dispersed in Stockholm. Instead of receiving care in single rooms, Covid-19 patients are gathered in larger hospital rooms so that staff do not need to change protective equipment between each patient visit.

- We have emergency care now. It can be an IVA nurse for six patients now, especially at night we are short staffed, says one of the intensive care staff.

Oxygen capacity is needed

Another bottleneck for creating new intensive care facilities is the availability of electricity and oxygen capacity. Norrtälje has already retrained staff and tripled the capacity to eleven places in intensive care, and today five of them are unemployed.

- But when it comes to power and oxygen capacity, they do not hold to continue to escalate here, says Susanne Bergenbrant Glas, chief physician in Norrtälje.