Yesterday, Friday the 2nd March 2012, I had the privilege of visiting the Central Hospital in Karlstad and be informed about robot surgery. My colleges from Gävleborg and I were impressed by what this technique, which is being used more and more, can accomplish specially within the area of prostate surgery.

In the beginning of this new century this technique was launched in Sweden where the urologist is helped by a robot to perform operations, so called robot-assisted prostatectomy. This method has just started being used at the Central Hospital in Karlstad.

Operating prostate cancer is technically difficult. There are many anatomical obstacles near the gland which one doesn’t want to damage, e.g the nerve of the

corpus cavernosum of the penis. That is why one operates as near as possible to the prostate gland. This also increases the risk of leaving parts of the tumor in the body. With the help of the robot one can perform the different steps of the operation with greater precision compared to other methods.

Robot surgery is a further development of keyhole surgery. Robot surgery is similar to keyhole surgery in that it also uses two small holes in the abdomen. The operator inserts the different instruments attached to long tubes through the holes. One of the instruments is always a camera that shows what is happening inside the body on a monitor.

The difference between keyhole surgery and robot surgery is the smoother flow of power between the operator’s hand movement and the instruments inside the patient. This minimizes trembles and shakes. The robot instrument has an extra joint which gives the surgeon greater maneuverability. The image on the monitor of the operation is three dimensional which also facilitates the work for the operator.

The investment of twenty million Swedish Crowns is well used money according to the unanimous opinion of both politicians and surgeons in Karlstad. By using the new technology in Karlstad it has become easier to recruit more doctors. This has given Karlstad a good number of urologists.

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Swedish;    http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com/2012/03/robotkirurgi.html

  Robin Lim, an American woman who has helped thousands of poor Indonesian women have a healthy pregnancy and birth, was named the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year on Sunday night - 11th of dec.

Through her Yayasan Bumi Sehat health clinics, "Mother Robin," or "Ibu Robin" as she is called by the locals, offers free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid in Indonesia, where many families cannot afford care.

"Every baby's first breath on Earth could be one of peace and love. Every mother should be healthy and strong. Every birth could be safe and loving. But our world is not there yet," Lim said during "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and recognized Lim and the other top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

Many women in the developing world do not have access to contraception or maternal care. According to the United Nations Population Fund, three out of five women giving birth in South Asia do so without a skilled birth attendant on hand.

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Congratulations!

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  Keep your hands clean! Common diseases are increasingly difficult to treat
when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, unnecessary use of antibiotics must be reduced. A new assessment shows that reduction of the use of antibiotics is already occuring in several
countries, but there are still large regional differences. Our goal is that one antibiotic prescription of three be removed. John Carlson, Director General of Disease Control, SMI and Goran Stiernstedt, head
of care, write – “Ordinary people can help by washing their hands and staying home when they are sick”, from DN Debate.

The long term goal for Sweden is 250 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants per year. Today, the national average is 382 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants per year. This means that almost
every third antibiotic prescription must be removed. It is a bold goal, but we are convinced that it is achievable. To achieve thesegoals everyone must help.

In Gävleborg we have 338 prescriptions per 1000 inhabitant recorded during the last
measurement period - October 2010 to Sep 2011- and 336 the previous year. We have a lot to do to achieve the goal for Sweden of 250 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants per year.

These figures were among the topics of conversation I had with the board members of PRO Gävleborg, when I met them in Gävle the other day. I hope that the new website – http://www.antibiotikaellerinte.se - will support doctors and give patients and the public the knowledge of when it is good to use antibiotics and when it is not.

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http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com/2011/10/tvatta-handerna-och.html /swedish/

InK  

In the coming Fall budget, the Alliance government is planning to invest a large amount on increasing the number of doctors and nurses. From 2017 the plan is to train 300 more doctors and 700 more nurses every year in Sweden.

The proposal for next year is to have 50 new openings for medical students to become doctors and 60 new openings for medical students to become nurses. The increase of openings for medical studies will done a step at a time.

This is good considering that the educational facilities are very under dimensioned today. Hopefully this will, in the long run, lead to removal of the problem with hired personnel. The cost for Gävlebord so far this year, Jan. – July, is 129 million SEK. This is an increase of 22 million SEK compared to last year when hired doctors made up the greatest part of the cost, 116 million SEK.

Today there is an ongoing budget work to improve the doctor situation in Gävleborg’s county council, both long term and short term.

I say, "The Alliance government’s investment in medical education, the long queues, investment in psychiatry, etcetera, are more than welcome".  

A light is visible in the darkness.

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  InK

Text in Swedish

http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

  Don’t close down the ambulance services. This message from the children in Los last year at the meeting between politicians and the general public, was the introductory remark used by the County Council Director at this year’s opening of the FLISA conference in Gävle on Tuesday.

There were 700 participants, 60 exhibitors, 45 lecturers and a large number of ambulances at the Läkerol Arena in Gävle. This ambulance congress is an annual event which started in Jämtland in 1985. Politicians, ambulance directors
and ambulance medical staff from the whole country gathered to take
part of the latest news during the three day period of 6-8 of September.

”This is the main event of the year and everyone is here”, says Paul Kongstad the chiarman of FLISA, (the society for  those responsible for leadership within Swedish ambulance care) who is responsible for the congress.

On Thursday, the 8th, one of the lecturers is Mikael Andersson. He usually attracts many listeners with his unforgetable and inspiring lectures. He is one of the most
popular speakers in Sweden and Norway. Mikael was born without arms
or legs and has had to struggle to get that which others take for granted. Mikael’s lectures are about resources and the possibilities  in life.

”I creat my own reality and am responsible for what happens in my life. It is the power of the mind which is my greatest resource and which determines if I choose life or not”, says Mikael Andersson who has written the book – Without
arms, without legs, but not without hope.

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text in Swedish;

 http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com/2011/09/lagg-inte-ner-ambulanserna.html?spref=fb

A few years ago an outraged principle from a school in western Gästrikland called me. At the time of an accident at the school, the ambulance had taken abnormally long time to find the school even though they used GPS. Because I had a politicial commission at that time in that part of the country, it was probaly natural to direct the anger at me. I passed on the principle´s reaction to those responsible.

The answer was a promise that this would not happen again... the human factor or what? Now it has happened again in Söderhamn. The ambulance drove to the right adress but to the wrong city!!  Instead of Söderhamn it went to Hudiksvall. Allow me to doubt the promise of it never happening again... this time it was SOS alarm who was responsible for the blunder. An investigation has been started.

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text in Swedish;

http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com/2011/08/ambulansen-som-forsvann.html

  "That´s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". With those words, U.S astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon on this day in 1969. Armstrong uttered that immortal phrase as he stepped down from the lunar landing module Eagel at 10:56 p.m EDT on July 20. Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins had travelled240,000 miles, blasting off from Cape Kennedy in Florida on July16. The lunar landing was the culmination of President John F. Kennedy´s dream to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. The landing was also the end of the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. There would be five more succesful manned missions to the moon.

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THIS DAY / IN HISTORY

http://landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com

As five thousand people looked on, Jean-Francois Gravelet became the first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope on this day in 1859 - June 30. Known professionally as Emile Blondin, the daredevil performed his amazing walk 160 feet above the Niagara Gorge, just downriver from the falls. The walk was the first of several Niagara tightrope walks that "The Breat Blondin" performed from 1859 to 1860.

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THIS DAY / IN HISTORY

http://www.landstingsradingemarkalen.blogspot.com