For almost a week, BB in Lycksele has been closed because Region Västerbotten has not managed to solve the staffing for three holiday weeks.
Taken height for many births
About 50 pregnant residents inland are planned to give birth sometime around the three weeks and in that case are forced to go all the way to the coast.
In that figure, the region has risen sharply, it is said.
So far, few of those births have taken place.
- There have been five births from Lycksele this week, three in Umeå and two in Skellefteå, says Olov Grankvist, operations manager at the Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Västerbotten.
The anxiety among the midwives before the summer was great. How strained is the situation now?
- It has been calm in Umeå, more load in Skellefteå, but that varies over time.
It is difficult with the staffing and will continue to do so this autumn.
There is a shortage of midwives.
Terminations and sick leave behind decisions
He believes that the great crisis has actually been in Umeå before.
But in Lycksele, redundancies and sick leave meant that the region could not stay open all summer.
- We do not have the resources in staff that we can send up as many as we like from the coast, says Olov Grankvist.
At the same time, there is emergency preparedness at the hospital in Lycksele in case of an emergency.
Hear more in the clip.