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DEATH

Woman brings dead baby to clinic in paper bag

A woman turned up at a hospital in Helsingborg in western Sweden on Friday with a paper bag containing a dead baby.

The woman, reportedly in her forties, arrived at the hospital on Friday afternoon where she told the staff that she had given birth at home in her apartment and that she believed that the baby had been stillborn.

She said she had no idea she was even pregnant.

“There may be reasons for this that we can’t disclose at this point,” said police Skåne police spokesperson Göran Hassel to local paper Helsinborgs Dagbladet (HD).

Having given birth to the baby, the woman contacted a friend and together the made their way to the hospital, after placing the dead baby in the paper bag.

Due to the strange circumstances of the case the hospital has reported the matter to the police, and a full investigation will be carried out.

For the moment the investigation is classified as manslaughter.

Despite this however, no one is formally a suspect in the case and the police are not convinced a crime has taken place.

“It is still very uncertain what actually happened and if a crime has even been committed. It could quite easily simply be a very tragic incident, but a quite normal death,” said Hassel to the paper.

A death certificate has been issued and the police have conducted a forensic investigation of the woman’s home, where she claimed she gave birth to the dead baby.

An autopsy will also be performed on the baby by a medical examiner, after which the police will decide on how to proceed with the case.

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STATISTICS

Norway saw fewer hospital patients in 2020 despite pandemic

Fewer patients were treated in hospital in 2020 than in 2019, with Covid-19 being the reason for the drop, according to Statistics Norway.

Norway saw fewer hospital patients in 2020 despite pandemic
Illustration photo by Audun Braastad / AFP)

The decline in patients has been largest for those awaiting planned treatments, but the number of people requiring immediate attention also dropped too, according to Statistics Norway figures.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals had to prioritise differently in 2020 as a result of the increased need for intensive care units.

“2020 was a year marked by pandemics and restrictions. In many places hospitals have had to prioritise differently due to the coronavirus, and perhaps particularly as the result of the increased need for intensive care,” the report said.

This has contributed to a decrease in the number of patients in hospitals at all levels of care.

The number of patients with 24-hour stays decreased by 7 percent. The total number of days spent in hospital fell by 11 percent or 380,000 fewer days in a hospital bed in 2020 compared to 2019.

Hospital stays lasting at least 24 hours include both planned and unplanned visits. In 2020 planned visits accounted for 29 percent of all visits, which is a decrease of 16 percent from the previous year, while visits for immediate appointments decreased by 3 percent.

READ ALSO: Norwegian senior medic calls for geographical division of Covid-19 restrictions

The figures show a decline for almost all diagnostic groups, but cancer patients had a smaller decline than other groups.

Planned treatment of various forms of cancer decreased by 8 percent, but acute help for tumours saw an increase of 11 percent.

This reverses a trend of numbers of patients in hospitals increasing year on year. The increases had primarily been driven by patients at outpatient clinics.

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