While a solution to the now two-month-long nurses’ strike is long overdue, the number of postponed operations and outpatient contacts is piling up.
Last week, 8,231 outpatient contacts and 1,471 surgeries were postponed due to the strike – almost twice as many as the week before.
It shows a statement from Danish Regions.
In total, 55,718 outpatient contacts and 8949 surgeries have been postponed since the strike broke out on 19 June.
The regions’ chief negotiator, Anders Kühnau (S), announced on Tuesday that he sees the possibilities for a negotiated solution for the exhausted.
Optimism has not grown in the last 24 hours.
– We are in a really sad situation, where thousands of Danes have had their operation or examination postponed.
– And in the board of the Danish Regions, we take the situation very seriously. The conflict has been going on for a long time, and it unfortunately has noticeable consequences for the patients and their relatives, he says in a press release.
The strike affects the planned, non-acute interventions and contacts in the health service.
Anders Kühnau predicts long-term consequences of the strike.
– At the same time, the strike will have a major impact on the health service well into the autumn, because all the many postponed treatments must be obtained alongside everything else that must be solved every day in the hospitals.
He calls the situation “stuck” and believes that the nurses have not managed to make “realistic and concrete” demands.
– It is sad, because in the board of the Danish Regions we would like to see the conflict stopped as soon as possible for the sake of the patients. However, our door is always open if DSR (Danish Nurses’ Council, ed.) Should change its mind.
The number of postponed treatments must be seen against the background that there are on average up to 300,000 outpatient contacts per week in the health service.
The strike initially involved about 5,000 nurses – equivalent to one in ten.
It has since been expanded several times and currently includes 5,700 nurses in regions and municipalities across the country.
It will be gradually increased and reach 6,500 as of September 7, unless a solution to the conflict is found beforehand.
The government has so far refused to intervene in the dispute.
Source: The Nordic Page