Moving seriously ill patients involves great risks. A study done at Gävle Hospital shows that mortality increases by 24 percent when moving patients between intensive care units.
- It is serious that patients have to be moved. What we can see is that they are usually very fragile in their breathing and if you move them in an ambulance or helicopter there is a risk of complications of course, says Fredric Parenmark to Ekot.
"Missed opportunity to help us"Region Sörmland has moved more than 20 patients who received intensive care to other regions, but no more of them have died compared to patients who received care in the region, according to Marie Bennermo.
She says that before each move, a careful assessment is made of which patients are best suited to move.
Should you have moved staff instead of patients?
- We have had contact with other regions at an early stage and asked if they had the opportunity to help us with staff, but at the beginning of the pandemic no regions knew where it would go somewhere. Therefore, other regions did not have the opportunity to help us with staff, says Marie Bennermo.