– Norway is not equipped for obesity wave – NRK Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
Rolf Tore Kjæran (58) weighs well over 200 kilos. He depends on the wheelchair to get around.
The other day he was going on a short trip from the Hospital in Vestfold where he was being treated, to a meeting in the municipal council hall in Tønsberg. Here he is the leader of the council for people with disabilities.
His wheelchair was destroyed. He sat waiting for help for three hours.
He says that there were several reasons why it took so long to get help:
- The ambulance was too small.
- The stretcher to the ambulance was too small.
- The wheelchair, which was specially adapted for extremely overweight people, did not fit into the taxi bus.
He says that it all ended with firefighters and ambulance personnel getting him onto a far too small stretcher, and pushing him into an ambulance that drove him back to the hospital.
This is what Kjæran wants to do something about.
– One has not begun to take into account that there is a big wave of obesity, so that nothing is rigged, as something as simple as a hospital bed, he says.
Rented a hospital bed
The bed he is in at the Hospital in Vestfold has been rented.
The hospital will also have a bed for extremely overweight people, but according to Kjæran it does not enter the area.
He says that as an overweight person he also encounters problems elsewhere. He mentions as examples that doors can be too narrow for his wheelchair to enter and that ordinary lifts can be too small and carry too little weight.
Now he wants to prepare Norway that there will be more such situations where morbidly obese people need help.
He wants, for example, more buildings to be better adapted.
– The politicians and those in charge have not taken note of the fact that this is happening. Those who are overweight are mostly left at home. You do not get help, says Kjæran.
He emphasizes that he is not dissatisfied with the treatment he received from the hospital, but believes that even the facilitation for extremely overweight people must be improved.
Equipment for morbid obesity
Director of the service division at the Hospital in Vestfold, Henry Dallager, writes in an e-mail to NRK that it is unfortunate that Kjæran had a bad experience related to equipment and facilitation.
– We include these experiences and his input in our further work to facilitate patients with similar needs.
Dallager states that the hospital has some equipment for people with morbid obesity.
Among other things, they have 18 ceiling-mounted personal lifts and one mobile personal lifter for a maximum weight of 300 kilos. They also have one large wheelchair and one bed that can withstand up to 500 kilos and that enter the doors of the special posts for intensive care, medical monitoring and in the emergency center.
– We have an opportunity to hire a person who walks in the door of the hospital.
He adds that the stretchers in the ambulances can withstand up to 318 kilos, but that wheelchairs can often be a better alternative.
Facilitation in several places
Professor at the University of Oslo and head of the Center for morbid obesity in Health South-East, Jøran Hjelmesæth, says that 20 percent of Norway’s population has obesity, which means a BMI of over 30. Of these, there is an increase in people with morbidity. . overweight, ie with a BMI of over 40, he states.
He believes that there are at least over 100,000 people with morbid obesity, but exact figures do not exist.
He agrees from what Kjæran says, that it does not sound as if Norway is well enough equipped for more people to become morbidly overweight.
– Men 318 kilos will take the vast majority. There are not many in Norway who weigh more than that. So if the stretcher can withstand 318 kilos, it sounds satisfactory, I think.
He adds that it should also be facilitated elsewhere. For example, in waiting rooms, so that chairs and examination benches can withstand a lot of weight.
– So that they do not experience embarrassing and unpleasant situations, such as equipment breaking or falling to the ground or floor because things break.
Requirements for adaptation
State Secretary Ole Henrik Krat Bjørkholt in the Ministry of Health and Care Services writes in an e-mail to NRK that they have previously made demands for facilitation of universal design at the hospitals.
This is part of their responsibility for the population in their area.
The health trusts have prepared guidance material to ensure this when building new hospital buildings. When new plans are made for the operation and development of hospital buildings and transport, one will look at forecasts for the needs of the population for adapted services. This is part of the regional health authorities’ responsibility, Bjørkholt states.