They became more effective from the pandemic

She works at Mälar Hospital's operating department in Eskilstuna and was one of many who changed tasks to help with the new patients. 

- They were so very ill and we are not usually used to that in surgery.

But thanks to good cooperation, it worked, says Ann Rickström. 

When the staff was re-prioritized to newly opened covid wards, other care was also prioritized.

Initially, a large part of the non-emergency operations were stopped. 

- You saw the queues get longer and longer and knew that we are the ones who have to take care of it later, says Ann Rickström.

More efficient

But despite the county being hit hard, they have quickly come back on track.

Today, even more operations are performed than before the pandemic began. 

- We had to learn new ways of working and became much more efficient.

We have done a lot of surgical operations on a fairly small resource because we have organized it differently, says Jesper Sperber, operations manager at the Anesthesia Clinic at Mälar Hospital and Kullbergska Hospital.

"Take one at a time"

SVT: Isn't there a risk that you work too hard on the staff? 

- We will work smarter and in other ways.

So my hope is that this will not be harder to work in, says Jesper Sperber. 

Ann Rickström is now back in the operating room and one of those struggling to reduce the operating queues. 

- Now it's good, I think.

I know we have long queues for certain operations, but we take one at a time, says Ann Rickström.