The hospitals in Helse nord and Helse sør-øst will receive many extra vaccine doses next week. Thereafter, the hospitals in all the health trusts will have increased access.
A number of Norwegian hospitals, including Ahus in Lørenskog, are under severe pressure during the third wave of the pandemic. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
––
This was decided by the Ministry of Health and Care Services on Friday, writes VG.
Representatives have sounded the alarm in recent days about the situation in the hospitals, which still have a large number of unvaccinated employees, at the same time as the vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on pause. A large proportion of the doses that have gone to healthcare professionals are of this type of vaccine.
The hospitals in Health South-East and Health North now receive 15,000 vaccine doses in week 12, 5,000 more than planned. 3,000 of them go to Oslo University Hospital, and the rest is distributed between the two regional health authorities.
In addition, healthcare professionals over the age of 65 or in the risk group receive 4,000 extra doses to ensure that they do not lose their doses.
No one gets fewer doses
The following week, the hospitals will receive an additional 15,000 doses, but then they will be distributed between all four regional health authorities.
The doses are taken from the National Institute of Public Health’s emergency stockpile. All municipalities thus receive as many doses as they would otherwise receive, writes FHI.
– We have had this emergency stockpile to be sure that we have the second dose for those who will have this. We now perceive the deliveries from Moderna as so stable that we are more confident that we will receive the doses that are planned to be delivered from Moderna, says infection control director Geir Bukholm.
Health North is given priority because the health trust is very vulnerable to health personnel who end up in quarantine or become infected, as the hospitals are smaller. Health south-east is given priority due to the serious corona situation in Oslo and Viken, the Ministry of Health and Care Services writes in a press release.
60 percent vaccinated in Health South-East
The extra doses ensure, among other things, that Finnmark Hospital gets a third of its employees vaccinated, writes iFinnmark. Helse nord informs NTB that Finnmark Hospital will receive a total of 33 vials of vaccines in week 12, and 27 in week 13. Each vial contains six or seven doses.
In Health North, the University Hospital of Northern Norway will receive a total of 234 vaccine vials over the next two weeks, Nordland Hospital will receive 140 and Helgeland Hospital 60.
In Health South-East, there is jubilation over the news.
– This is very gratifying. The management of Health South-East has been concerned that vaccines are prioritized for health personnel, says CEO of Health South-East RHF, Cathrine M. Lofthus, in a press release.
In total, Health South-East will receive 13,400 doses in week 12. The plan is that 60 per cent of the employees in areas with high infection pressure will be vaccinated after week 12, with the exception of Oslo University Hospital, which will have achieved the same by the end of week 13. .
–
