Every week, Susanne Glinning comes to the Karolinska hospital in Solna to receive her chemotherapy treatment. She suffers from an incurable form of cancer.
– This is a treatment I receive to feel well for as long as possible and to prolong life, she says.
At the beginning of June, Susanne was told that the treatments would possibly be somewhat fewer this summer, but received no further information beyond that. Time passed and Susanne began to wonder how the treatments would turn out in July.
– Usually I get appointments several weeks in advance, but now I didn’t get an appointment. I was only told that I was on a watch list and that they would contact me when they had an appointment. It was a bit difficult because you also want to have a little planning, especially during the summer.
Had all treatments cancelled
On the same day as her regular treatment, Monday, she finally got hold of a nurse.
– They had just been told that they don’t have enough staff and couldn’t plan for the summer and that they therefore have to cancel some patients. She also thought it was very regrettable.
Thus, all of Susanne’s treatments until August were cancelled. She thinks it is bad that Karolinska does not inform its patients better.
– On the one hand, you run the risk of possibly getting worse in your illness, and you don’t know that until later. Then there is the uncertainty of not being notified or someone informing properly. You will find out the same week. I think it is so badly managed, says Susanne.
Susanne Glinning does not seem to be the only one whose treatments are affected by the staff shortage.
– The nurse at the breast center said that I am not alone in this, that many people are affected. It’s not just for my sake, I think it’s deplorable that such important cancer care is affected.
“There has been a breakdown in our communication”
After TV4 Nyheterna contacted the Karolinska hospital, Susanne Glinning got an appointment for treatment the following day.
Susanne Wallberg, operations manager for cancer at Karolinska University Hospital, says that the only reasons for canceling treatments are medical assessments or in consultation with the patients.
– My assessment is that we have broken down in our communication to this patient and if we have broken down in it, I want us to correct it. It is only medical assessments that cause us to thin out treatments.
How is it that she was told that it was a lack of staff that meant she would not receive treatments?
– We have a capacity plan that we drew up early on and we are sticking to it. It is not a lack of staff, that we got some illness that is behind this. It is clear that it could be someone from our staff who answered like that.
Can you guarantee that the patients who want to continue their treatment will also be able to do so this summer?
– Yes absolutely.