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HEALTH

Norway imports blood amid donor shortfall

With blood donors thin on the ground, Norway currently has little option but to import blood from elsewhere in Europe.

Norway imports blood amid donor shortfall
Photo: Scanpix (File)

Across the continent, only Estonia has fewer blood donors per head of population than Norway, Aftenposten reports.

“The World Health Organisation and the Red Cross strongly recommend that every country ensures it has enough volunteer, unpaid blood donors to meet its own needs,” Professor Hans Erik Heier of Blodbanken told the newspaper.

“Blood should be donated to help other people, not to earn money. Twenty percent of the world’s population uses 80 percent of the blood on the market. If we’re a burden, others will get less,” he added.

According to Heier, around 50,000 patients need blood transfusions every year. Norway is home to 95,000 donors, but 30,000 more are needed to meet demand, he said.

Over the last four years, the donor shortfall has forced Norwegian blood banks to buy blood plasma products from abroad.

Norway is now in talks with other countries about securing a supply of blood for the coming years.

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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