Stockholm and Ostergotland are ready to receive high national isolation care

As 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 be conducted in two units.

Now, when the time to apply for this type of sponsorship is up, the Östergötland and Stockholm regions will obviously want to take over.

It is about the care of patients with suspected or confirmed infection of serious highly contagious infections, for example various types of hemorrhagic fevers, until the patient recovers or dies.

Ultimately, it will be up to the board of directors of the highly specialized national care to decide whether to authorize the care.

Today, Sweden’s only high national isolation unit is located at the University Hospital in Linköping, which has long had the capacity to care for Ebola patients, for example, for more than 48 hours.

Assuming the Östergötland region receives the assignment, the high isolation unit in the infectious disease clinic will be rebuilt “according to a standard meaning the most modern and best adapted building for this type of care in Sweden,” according to a press release.

For several years now, the Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge has had a regional mission to care and care for patients with suspected or verified highly contagious infection for more than 48 hours.

– If we get the task, we are ready to start right away. Since then, we have a good cooperation with Linköping and their unit. If we were to take over the task to the Karolinska University Hospital, we would develop a collaboration with the other task-receiving hospital in Sweden, if not Linköping, in order to develop the task at a national level, says Hedvig Glans, infectious disease physician and head of the department, in an email to Läkartidningen.

The medical paper has previously reported on long-term plans for a new unit co-funded by the Southern Healthcare District regions – located in Malmö – where patients can be treated for more than 48 hours.

When Läkartidningen took over in Malmö at the end of 2020, the infectious disease clinic was waiting for, among other things, delayed deliveries of advanced protective suits from China. However, several steps forward were taken during the year, including staff training and the acquisition of a private transportation incubator.

But it is now clear that Region Skåne has not applied for a highly specialized national welfare administration. Petr Eck, director of operations at the infection clinic in Malmö – who took over after the decision was made – confirms the whole thing.

– It is true that Skåne University Hospital did not apply. As I understand, an assessment has been made that Karolinska University Hospital has advanced further in working with the high isolation unit, and that it will take time to get everything right here in Malmö. As I understand it, it was a firm decision.

The special transport incubator was sold to the University Hospital in Linköping, which today has the task of transport. However, the change of course does not mean that all preparations in Malmö were in vain, according to Peter Eck.

– We will use our changes to care for patients with suspected infection who require high isolation while awaiting test results. He says we have prepared two rooms for that.

Lakartidningen.se 2023-03-27