– It is a worse offer to the population of Finnmark, than what one finds in the rest of the country.
Jon Are Aslaksen, a member of the Ambulance Association and ambulance worker in Hammerfest municipality, says.
He is one of several ambulance workers who warn against the extensive use of home guards in old Finnmark county.
Fear of the offer
When an ambulance is seen on home duty, it means that the personnel are not present at the station, but are on duty from their own home.
Several municipalities use the station during the day, but one in the afternoon, evening and on weekends has personnel on standby from home.
If there is a need for an emergency, the ambulance worker must drive to first pick up the car, then perhaps pick up a partner before traveling on to the emergency city.
In Finnmark, it is not uncommon for ambulances to be combined in an active and passive car. This means that the ambulance personnel are a few hours at the station with on-call duty and a few hours at home.
– WARNING: Jon Are Aslaksen is one of several ambulance staff in Finnmark who is now warning against the extensive use of home guards. Photo: Private
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– It simply means that the ambulance contingency produced through them is added to housing, says Aslaksen.
– This means that you have to drive from home, into the station and pick up the car there before you can move. An unnecessary detour.
In total, there are 30 ambulances that cover the 18 municipalities in the former Finnmark county. Only three of these cars are on constant duty. The rest rolls between being at the station and on to the home guard.
Figures from the Ambulance Association show that an ambulance on home care spends an average of 10 to 15 minutes more when they move out.
– We have been forgotten
This means that the experienced ambulance worker is helping to weaken the offer to the inhabitants.
He admits that it affects those who work with this to this day.
– We do not feel we can do our job one hundred percent. We have the education and skills needed to save lives, but time is working against us.
Aslaksen knows that in time-critical situations it often takes about a minute from the time the patient arrives to receive the treatment he or she needs.
Then he thinks it is not acceptable that the population in Finnmark must find themselves able to experience a considerably longer response time.
– We have been forgotten and overlooked. The answer we get when we ask about this is that it is not economical to have people on duty at the station. There are no funds to staff up.
In Hammerfest municipality alone, the number of assignments increased from 3600 in 2020 to 4145 in 2021. An assignment week of over 500 assignments in one year.
– As I said, it is a worse offer to the population in Finnmark. It is discriminatory against both people and employees when one has such big differences, he says.
Now Aslaksen comes with a clear call to the Minister of Health and Care Services Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor).
– The Minister of Health must ensure that people in Finnmark have as good preparedness as in the rest of the country.
Meiner offer is justifiable
State Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Care Services, Karl Kristian Bekeng, writes in an email to TV 2 that the requirements for ambulance services are regulated in the emergency medicine regulations and that ambulances must thus be manned with on-call duty.
When asked whether the practice in Finnmark is justifiable, Bekeng writes that the Ministry of Health reckons that Helse Nord will adhere to the regulations, but that exceptions may be made if the ambulance can be manned within a reasonable time.
Helse Nord refers directly to Finnmark Hospital as the chief physician responsible for the ambulance service in Finnmark. Dei does not wish to comment on the matter beyond that.
In an email to TV 2, Finnmark Hospital writes that Helse Nord says in its recommendation that municipalities with more than 8,000 inhabitants should have at least one possible ambulance on standby duty, of which only 3 services in Finnmark have this scheme.
They also say that they do not feel that in the criticism from the Ambulance Association that emergency services in Finnmark with home guards spend 10 to 15 minutes longer than in the rest of the country.
Finnmark Hospital says they experience that the response time is good, and that many of the home guards have as good a response time as those who are on station duty.
– Nobody wants to take responsibility for Finnmark
– There is no doubt that the average for expressing an ambulance in Finnmark takes 10 to 15 longer than in the rest of the country.
This is the victory of the leader of the Ambulance Association in Delta and a member of the Total Emergency Preparedness Commission, Ola Yttre.
He shakes his head at the response from the responsible authorities.
– I think this is a violation of the regulations. The problem here is also that it is a recommendation and not a specific bill.
– RESPONDS: The tenant of the Ambulance Association in Delta and a member of the Total Emergency Preparedness Commission, Ola Yttre, reacts to the response from the health authorities. Photo: Gunnhild Lervåg / Ambulance Association
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He is afraid that the ambulance service in Finnmark will be a constant throw-in in the system between various ministries, Health North and Finnmark Hospital.
– Nobody wants to take responsibility for Finnmark. They just put enormous pressure on the staff, says Yttre.
The leader of the Ambulance Association in Delta reacts to the fact that there is still this debate in Norway in 2022. Externally, it seems strange that a few years ago there was an enormous focus on increasing the competence in the ambulance service, without including response time.
– I think it is very strange that we still have to fight for people’s basic rights in Norway. If we arrive too late, it does not help if one is a trained doctor. Increasing competence should benefit the people, then it still does not help if we do not arrive on time.
– This is discrimination of the offer for the inhabitants of Finnmark. Here, both the Minister of Health and the Minister of Gender Equality must step in to ensure people’s rights, he says.
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