The University Hospital Linköping currently has one of two high isolation units in Sweden for patients with serious infectious infections. The other is at the Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge. Linkoping is also the only hospital that can transfer this kind of patients. So far, this has been done in a private ambulance that is flown using an Air Force transport plane to and from the University Hospital to pick up and drop off patients.

– But the use of Air Force planes is a big device, and it’s also not the main task of the armed forces to transport patients, says David Eckvist, specialist doctor in charge of the high isolation unit at the University Hospital in Linköping.

David Eqvist. Photo: Östergötland region.

Therefore, the hospital is at the beginning of the way to provide a more flexible air transport solution with the help of a private transport incubator and a private ambulance plane.

In the incubator called Epishuttle, the patient is isolated from the environment and the environment is preserved from infection. It enables longer, less resource-demanding transfers.

– Staff do not have to wear protective equipment, which means you can work longer shifts and it becomes much easier to change people who care for a patient.

Recently, the hospital also started a collaboration with the Swedish Air Ambulance to transport severely injured patients in transport incubators. The aim is to be able to transfer patients from all over the country to higher isolation units in Linköping or Hudinge.

The goal is to be ready at the beginning of the year.

As previously reported by Läkartidningen, the National Board of Health and Welfare has decided that tertiary isolation care for highly contagious diseases will become highly specialized national care and is conducted in two units. Östergötland and Stockholm have both applied to be allowed to provide this type of sponsorship.

Decisions about where to conduct highly isolated national care are made by the highly specialized Care Committee. No decision has been made yet.

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