Kathrine Johns has been trying to get help from the health care system for almost 30 years. A fall left her with neurological damage to her back, neck, face and head – and great pain.
After giving up on getting help in the public health system, she ended up at the private clinic MED Oslo. She signed a repayment package over the phone, because the treatment was too expensive for her.
Now she is left with a consumer loan of NOK 150,000 – and just as much pain.
The story of a case
Kathrine Johns and her son in Lanzarote in 1994, just before everything changed.
Photo: Private
Kathrine’s pain hell started in 1994, on a holiday trip to Lanzarote.
– We were at a vantage point in the lava landscape, and I took a supportive step backwards. As a result, I fell five meters straight onto pointed lava stones. I hurt myself badly, I was completely devastated, says Johns.
At the same time, she was happy that her 20-month-old son, who was sitting on her arm, only got a scrape on his cheek.
Afterwards, Johns woke up in a hospital, where she was “patched up”. The result was injuries to the back, neck, face and head.
Little did she know then that the fall would have lasting consequences.
Pain patient
Kathrine Johns was a magazine journalist for several decades, known for her many portraits of female celebrities.
Now the 62-year-old struggles with several types of headaches. The pain is so great that she has received disability benefits.
When the migraine comes, Kathrine Johns lies in a dark room, with an ice pack on her head.
Photo: Private
Migraines mean that she often lies in a dark room. For almost three decades, she has attended most treatments, both in the public and private healthcare system.
– Before, I only got migraines when the car drove over a speed bump or I got a beam of light in my eye, she says.
Johns first went to the private clinic MED in Oslo in 2015, in what she herself describes as “desperation”. The first period of treatment lasted two years.
– It alleviated for a few days, but it was too expensive, says Johns.
The doctor suggested treatments
Nevertheless, she went to MED Oslo again, because she experienced getting better there the first time.
Johns says that she initially had three consultations, which she paid for. The doctor is said to have suggested treatments, which Johns thought were too expensive.
– She then said that “the clinic offers an installment agreement” and asked how much I could pay per month. I said NOK 2,000, it turned out to be NOK 6,000.
Johns says she received five or six treatments after she signed what she thought was a credit agreement. What she had received was what the doctor calls a “treatment package” worth NOK 120,000.
In practice, this was an installment plan, financed with consumer loans from two banks.
– When I understood what I had signed, I called for an overview and treatment plan. When I didn’t get it, I ended the collaboration and asked the State Administrator to open a supervisory case.
– Did you not realize what you signed?
– I felt very, very pressured. She called me at home, because I had to have my bank ID to sign. It was very uncomfortable. In retrospect, I see that I should have hung up. It was stupid, but I didn’t do it.
John says she signed because she had full confidence in the doctor.
– Then she said “you have to sign again because the signing didn’t go through.” My accountant here also says you have to sign again.”
The doctor denies that she called Johns and pressured her to sign.
Pain management
NRK visits the private clinic MED Oslo, which is centrally located in Oslo. Here, Monica Drottning Rønne, specialist in neurology, has worked with pain and migraine patients for many years.
Doctor Monica Drottning Rønne is a specialist in neurology at the private clinic MED Oslo.
Photo: Ola Hana / NRK
Rønne denies that Kathrine Johns was pressured to take out a consumer loan, which has now increased to NOK 150,000.
– Because we had the option of a treatment loan, we discussed what she could manage. She didn’t have to say yes, she wasn’t pressured to take out a loan. Either she bought that treatment or she didn’t, says Rønne.
The neurology specialist says that she believes the scheme was “like buying a fridge in installments”. She also says that she no longer offers this form of payment.
NRK is also allowed to participate in the pain treatment of other patients.
Torill Østby Wiker is very satisfied with the treatment. She is one of ten patients with what the doctor calls a “treatment loan”.
– That’s expensive. But I have a repayment plan so I pay a fixed amount a month for two years, and that means I can service it, says Østby Wiker.
– How did the installment plan come about?
– It was on Monica’s initiative where she informed that there was a possible solution.
State administrator: – Very unfortunate
Rønne has complained to the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken by Johns. Johns has waived the obligation of confidentiality. NRK has full insight into the matter.
The state administrator writes in his decision that patients pay for the individual treatments after each treatment, while a treatment package is paid for in advance.
“When the treatment package was expensive and the patient did not have the finances to pay, you informed about an installment plan via banks that provide consumer loans,” writes the State Administrator to the doctor.
The state administrator assumes that Johns signed two loan agreements with two different banks for a total of NOK 120,000 in consumer loans, which has now increased to NOK 150,000.
“The treatment package has been prepaid in that the sum has been transferred to the clinic,” the decision states.
The state administrator writes that the patient contacted the doctor after she received an invoice from the banks and asked that the clinic reimburse the amount for treatment she has not yet received.
“You have proposed to help her via your economist at the clinic, but stated that it is not possible to repay the amount as it is not the clique that has entered into an agreement with the bank”.
– Has mixed roles
The state administrator in Oslo and Viken concludes that the doctor:
Inflicted unnecessary expenses on John’s health care and thus breached section six of the Health Personnel Act, on the duty to use resources appropriately. Have been both healthcare personnel and offered a financing scheme in the form of consumer loans with named banks.
The state administrator concludes by saying that it is seen as “very unfortunate” that the doctor as a healthcare professional mixes several roles.
Neurologist specialist Drottning Rønne refuses to answer questions about the state administrator’s conclusion in this case.
– I have not done this to deceive anyone, she says.
– Special case
Head of the ethics council in the medical association, Svein Aarseth says that this case is special.
Photo: Ola Hana / NRK
The Council for Medical Ethics in the Medical Association has now decided that the case of Kathrine Johns will be processed there.
The former GP, Svein Aarseth has been head of the council for medical ethics for nine years.
He says the council has asked for the doctor’s explanation before the case comes up for consideration. Most likely it will already happen during October.
– This is a type of problem we have not come across before, and that makes the matter fundamental, says Aarseth.
He explains that they would like to shed light on the problem of doctors entering into agreements with patients regarding payment.
– Patients are of course free to go to a lending institution, or to borrow money for whatever they want. But what is special here is that it seems that the doctor’s office or clinic has a collaboration with two banks to achieve this.
Kathrine Johns has also complained to the Financial Complaints Board and is prepared to take the case further to the Conciliation Council.
Kathrine Johns and one-year-old Hunter, with whom she walks as often as she can.
Photo: Ola Hana / NRK
2023-10-08 12:39:17
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