The consultation document replies, now collected and reviewed, confirm there is strong support for the NKS concept proposal.
Several responses advocate an expeditious development and implementation of the NKS proposal. Others also propose that a new comprehensive plan clearly defining the roles of all health care providers within the Stockholm County Council be quickly developed.
Below is a brief summary of the comments and views which have been submitted.
Consultation Document Reply for HSN-management
The Stockholm Health Care Committee has been commissioned to determine the healthcare needs for the county and to then commission the appropriate care where it deems it would be best practiced most economically.
- Business development content at NKS should be defined as early as possible in the ongoing process.
- An analysis of how to best implement the newly proposed operational procedures ought to completed prior to an operational kick off.
- The collective healthcare services and departments ought to be involved in the process.
- The responsibility and role of the emergency room should be clarified.
- There ought to be a comprehensive survey conducted which highlights the potential implications of the NKS’s plan on the Stockholm County Council’s healthcare mission. (NKS as a resource hub for the county’s healthcare system)
Consultation Document Reply for The Karolinska Institute
The Karolinska Institute is one of Europe's largest medical universities.
- NKS is the largest infrastructural support undertaking in Sweden within medical research in the past 50 years.
- NKS proposes an innovative concept to integrate healthcare, research and teaching.
- NKS should function as an extension of the future university hospital with operations both in Solna and Huddinge.
- Research and academics require access to medical practice outside the university hospital.
Consultation Document Reply Karolinska University Hospital
Karolinska University Hospital is one of Europe’s largest hospitals and works closely with Karolinska Institutet
- Karolinska university hospital's mission has the same direction and ambitions presented in the NKS report.
- Coordination of ongoing projects at Karolinska University Hospital and continued clarification of the NKS concept is paramount.
- A comprehensive plan for the Stockholm healthcare system is required.
- A convergence of organizational and operational objectives between KI and the university’s health services is imperative.
Consultation Document Reply SBU
SBU, The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care, is a government agency which assesses healthcare practices and routines. SBU analyzes the benefits, risks and costs while simultaneously comparing scientific data against traditional Swedish healthcare practice. Their mission is to provide a coherent basis to assist in the decision-making process of how Swedish healthcare will evolve.
- The concept represents a new way of thinking to give the Karolinska University Hospital the potential to become a world leading university hospital
- Focusing on highly specialized care is evident.
- Both care and research requires a trusting partnership with other healthcare providers (hospitals and primary care clinics) locally and nationally.
- Profiling and exchanges with other university hospitals recommended desirable.
Consultation Document Reply Södersjukhuset Hospital
Södersjukhuset is one of Stockholm's largest emergency care hospitals. Additionally, it also conducts extensive clinical research with emphasis on common diseases. The Sachsska Children's Hospital is also a part of Södersjukhuset.
- The report highlights praiseworthy new approaches to healthcare and a need to work in cooperation as a network.
- NKS will be a specialized node in a network of healthcare, research, development and education (FoUU) but not influence, apportion or administer non-NKS dealings.
- Incentives should be formed to promote cooperation within the network.
- Standard care and clinical research, even if costly, can have had advantages to be conducted outside of the NKS if there are other important correlations.
Danderyd Hospital
Danderyd Hospital is an emergency hospital in the northern region of Greater Stockholm. Clinical research and education related to healthcare is also carried out at the hospital.
- The proposal is in line with modern approaches to organization and operation of a hospital.
- Increased movement (rotations) for specialists and other healthcare employees within the Stockholm County Council provides a fluid organization and better opportunities for networking.
- A thematic structure is a good way to improve systemized care pathways with shorter lead times, consequently improving healthcare across the board.
- A comprehensive plan is needed for Stockholm's academic health systems - "the Karolinska Medical Center (KMC) should be implemented.
Consultation Document Reply: Capio St. Göran's Hospital
Capio St. George is an emergency hospital for adult patients located on Kungsholmen in central Stockholm
- Thematic care and networking; the most innovative and challenging sections.
- It’s vital to quickly define the strategic designation of thematic structures as this will affect the other hospitals and clinics in a network model.
- Present reimbursement models may be a hindrance to the proposed development
- It’s of foremost importance that the council’s management can make a decision as early as possible about the cooperative function of the hospital's future roll and its mission.
Healthcare Trade unions
Stockholm Medical Association
The Stockholm Medical Association is chapter of the Swedish Medical Association, the trade union for physicians and medical students.
- Critical to proposed concept of a thematic organization and multi-professional approach to working as well as a “repetition slogan/chant of ‘Patient First’”
Vårdförbundet (The Swedish Association for Health Professionals)
Vårdförbundet is a trade union for midwives, biomedical scientists, radiographers and registered nurses.
- Supports the proposal of a thematic organization and multi-professional approach to working. The Patient First is an important motto which must be implemented. Clinical research should be cross-professional and benefit the entire healthcare chain
Kommunal (The Swedish Municipal Workers Union)
Kommunal is a collective of municipal employees with a high representation in the healthcare sector.
- New ways of working is a prerequisite for NKS to complete its mission. Existing labor practices must be refined to facilitate the (rotation) model beyond the administrative boundaries.
The Concept NKS Draft in brief:
- Patient First – our motto to provide the right treatment to the patient at the right time.
- Focus on new ways of working - involving multidisciplinary teams and collaboration across clinical boundaries.
- NKS is a hub for highly specialized and specialized care and research, e.g. a concentration of resources, know-how or research-intensive care (or combinations of such.)
- NKS cooperates in a flourishing network with the other hospitals to help provide better profiling. The result is to be more prompt treatment, increased capacity optimizing, and provide a better foundation for research, education and distribution of knowledge.
- Healthcare, research and teaching are well integrated with each other.
- Healthcare for NKS organized into themes. A suggested listing:
- Primary themes: Pediatrics, Neurology, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cancer, Inflammation, Restorative medicine
Secondary support themes: Immunology, Proteomics and Genomics, Imaging, Laboratories
- NKS to play a strategic role within Sweden’s national healthcare.
- Coordinated/integrated management, governance, organization created for the Karolinska Institute/NKS.