do you Remember Sandra Dark Valente? She is 30 years old. The mother of two children aged two and six years old, and terminally ill with cancer.
for several years she tried to get a diagnosis, but she was sent back and forth between different doctors. When she finally was taken seriously, and scanned, it was too late.
Sandra Dark Valentes story has been read by more than a half million danes, and since B. T. brought the story about her and Arne Notkin, we have received numerous emails from danes, who find that they are not taken seriously in the health service, if they cannot even cry out.
the President of the medical association Andreas Rudkjøbing tells that there is no doubt that they are patients who are resourceful or have resourceful relatives will get a better treatment and a faster diagnosis in the health care system.
“It is unfortunate and unfair, and it is something we focus on and try to do something about,” he says.
It’s about that time that the patient can tell, Tempobet and that the doctor can listen and respond to what is being said, telling the doctors ‘ chair.
“A really good tool, which we are in agreement with Danish Patients, must be widespread is empowerment, and joint decision-making. You need to make sure that the patient has the time and space to tell, to give space, and to take it the patient says seriously and follow up,” says Andreas Rudkjøbing.
But it is not the individual doctor that can or should be responsible to enhance the overall empowerment. It is a management responsibility, believes Andreas Rudkjøbing.
“You have to remember that it is the regions’ task to organise health care in the best possible way. As a doctor can and must do much, but the structure itself is the regions ‘ responsibility. And the structure must of course not be big, or mean, that there is a risk of falling between two chairs.”
He also stresses that regardless of how well the healthcare system is designed so that it does not change the fact that to make a diagnosis can be complicated and take a long time.
“It is a difficult discipline, and it is not always a linær process, you need to go through as a patient. It comes probably never really apart.”
Sundhedsudvalgsformand in the Danish Regions, Karin Friis Bach (R) writes in an email to B. T., that it is deeply problematic, when patients experience that they get lost in the system, and, therefore, risk falling between two chairs.
“Health care is for citizens, and it is crucial that you are listened to the patient and that the patient is to control the flow. We are therefore working hard to create the framework for that to happen,” writes polikeren.
“We are in the regions in time to ensure that all cancer patients and other inpatients, who need it, get assigned a patientansvarlig doctor,” she writes.
such A doctor will ensure that a named doctor responsible for the patient’s course of treatment in the health service. It is the doctor’s responsibility to ensure that the patient receives a consistent and safe course of treatment, and that the different treatments are linked.
