Debate, the PCI dispute | About the University Hospital of Northern Norway, professors and PCI

The hospitals in the UNN group (Tromsø, Harstad, Narvik and Longyearbyen) together with the pre-hospital services, will deliver highly specialized health services in a geocultural span from Svalbard to Bindalen. With a magnificent and demanding nature with lots of sea and a scattered population. With special preparedness challenges related to the border crossing with the neighbors in the east, to the fishing fleet, landslide damage and increasing tourist pressure.

A medical school

The actual date of birth for UNN was 28 March 1968 when the Storting decided to establish the University of Tromsø (UiT). At the same time, it was decided that a new hospital should also be built in Tromsø. This was a bold district policy decision put forward by the government Borten (Sp, H, V, KrF). The motivation was to remedy national geographical inequalities in health services by creating a medical school, an associated university hospital with highly specialized health services and research functions. The community mission was clear; does this despite the low population.

Requires leadership role

Interestingly, it was Per Borten’s grandson Ola Borten Moe (also Sp) who sent the most recent daring mission to UNN and UiT; increase the number of medical students to 181 from autumn 2023. This number is far higher than what the Grimstad committee proposed in its report (Ministry of Education; report on medical education in Norway, September 2019). But the consequences are clear; UiT and the University Hospital in Northern Norway must use all parts of the regional health service in their education model. This requires a clear leadership role; a center for all the satellites.

Network of health-related services

In order to fulfill its social mission, UNN must act as a center in a network of health-related services throughout the region. In order to provide approximately the same and good offers in our vast region, each unit in the system must function in an integrated manner. This is now being systematized with the work “Safe emergency medicine” which establishes algorithms and communication lines for the most important emergency medical conditions in the entire region.

Optimize the network model

Establishing a PCI unit at Nordlandssykehuset has shifted the dynamics of this network model for the treatment of heart attacks and related heart disorders. A wide range of medical and financial arguments have been advanced from both sides in this should-not debate.

However, today’s reality is that there is no need for such a unit (no health benefit and not a capacity problem at UNN), it shifts the focus from the network and pre-hospital treatment (thrombolysis), leads to uneconomic operating methods and leads to unnecessary overtreatment. We ask the board of Helse-Nord to look carefully at the facts in the case. Feel free to ask us to move back to the beginning to optimize the network model where Nordlandssykehuset and UNN have their clearly defined roles. With one interventional cardiology department (PCI) located at UNN.