The situation at the surgery center at NUS in Umeå is under severe pressure.

During the spring, they went on summer staffing, this summer on something similar to crisis staffing.

Only urgent cases have been taken care of, everything else has been put on hold.

- Now the situation is so worrying that we have to go into staff mode and cancel operations.

Some patients will not be operated on now, but I do not know exactly how many will be affected, said Brita Winsa, director of health and medical care in Västerbotten.

Several had to wait for weeks - it was unclear how the cancer had spread

Now it turns out that around ten cancer patients have had their surgery postponed.

Some had to wait five weeks.

Could it have gone too far so that the cancer has spread in some patients?

 - You can't say no to such a question, but we don't think so.

There have been cases when the investigation of the cancer took too long, and in some cases it may be as you say, but it is very difficult to prove, says Urban Arnelo, director of operations at the surgery center at NUS.

Cancer patients have had to be sent to the Karolinska hospital in Solna and the University Hospital in Uppsala for operations.

The lack of nurses is the main explanation for the pressured situation at the surgical center, there are doctors.

- Sometimes we don't get a single applicant for our ads.

We hope the situation will be a little better now that several nurses are coming back after maternity leave.

But the situation is very, very stressful with us, says Urban Arnelo.

Vårdförbundet: Operations are deleted every day

According to the union, which has been in contact with surgery planners at the surgical center, the situation looks really bad. 

- Because there are no personnel who can man the care places, operations are canceled every day.

Care queues are growing and patients with benign ailments have to wait this year for an operation.

Which of course increases the risk of unnecessary suffering and, in the worst case, death, writes Mikaela Bergström, vice president of the Västerbotten healthcare association, in an email to SVT Nyheter Västerbotten.

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