Lulea, Sweden
Sunderby Sjukhus
This morning, we started off with a walk to the Landstingshuset where we met with Anders who is the first pharmacist to be a member of a county council. He serves as the chairperson of the Drug Committee for Norrbotten County. He talked with us a little bit about the county council and the provision of healthcare and medications. With the breaking of the monopoly, the county councils will now be accepting bids for the pharmacy services. This could mean that Apoteket AB and Apoteket Farmaci will no longer provide pharmacy services at the Sunderby Sjukhus at the end of their contract in 2013. He also talked a bit about the different hospitals and clinics in Norrbotten County. We got to see where the County Council meets and heard a little bit of history about previous presidents of the council.
This is a view of the harbor from the bus stop.Next, we headed to Sunderby Sjukhus via bus to meet with Ingrid who is the infectious disease pharmacist. She works on both a local and national level to reduce antibiotic use in the county and country. We talked about the various drugs prescribed and the differences in common pathogens and drugs prescribed in Sweden vs. Memphis. She also showed us some charts comparing Sweden to other EU countries.
Lunch was pretty tasty today. We had fish and potatoes again. There were some meatballs that looked more like meat logs...I only managed one bite of that before I decided against it. The salad was tasty today, though!
We took a couple of fikas over the next little bit. We got a tour of the hospital which is really very un-hospital-like. It looks more like a shopping center than a hospital. The colors are very bright and the ceiling is made of glass to let the sun shine through.
Next, we got to talk with the IV pharmacists who prepare cytotoxic drugs for all of the hospitals in the area. Josh was really the expert on this with his experience with St. Jude. A big difference from US hospitals is that the IV room doesn't prepare IV antibiotics. They are actually made by nurses on the floors (without aseptic technique). Naturally, the pharamcists are hoping that this will change sometime in the near future.
After a few fikas (coffee breaks), we observed the distribution portion of the pharmacy where drugs are packed up to go to the other hospitals in the county. This was a pretty standard operation with an order list and a barcode system to verify the drugs being sent as correct.
We ate dinner at a pizzeria on our way home. We originally trying to get to Kyrkbyn, but we got a little confused by the bus system...we were conveniently located near an ICA (one of the grocery chains around here), so I got some groceries to last me for the next several days at least. Josh and I are trying to be economical while in Lulea so we can save up for traveling in Paris, Madrid, and Rome. We're planning to partake of some palt...I think that's what they are...sometime this weekend. I'll be sure to let you know how that is as it's a northern Swedish thing.
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