A new video was released on Tuesday to coincide with the Annual General Meeting at the Landspítali national university hospital in Reykjavík.
The meeting covered the hospital’s 2015 accounts in some detail, as healthcare financing in Iceland has seldom been a hotter topic than now.
Landspítali has been under financial strain for years and has come under criticism for canceled operations, poor maintenance and lining patients on trolleys in a parking garage, among other things. But hospital managers used the AGM, and the new video, to illustrate the amazing work being done under difficult circumstances.
The video celebrates the everyday by showing hospital statistics mixed with inspiring shots of staff, patients, and hospital facilities, and uses Hoppipolla by Sigur Rós as a soundtrack.
At the end of the video, the hospital’s director, Páll Matthíasson, tells viewers that every day at Landspítali is a miracle.
The video draws attention to several facts, including that around 200 people visit the accident and emergency ward of the hospital every day, that surgery is carried out on 60 patients per day, seven angiographs are carried out every day, 130 people visit as outpatients and for emergency mental healthcare, 70 people arrive every day for skin and sexual health tests, 40 children are admitted to the children’s emergency ward, an average of 12 people are in intensive care on any given day, 80 new inpatients are signed in, eight newborn babies are signed in to the world—including two by Caesarian section.
It’s all in a day’s work.
Around 3,700 people work at the country’s biggest hospital and 3.5 tons of waste are created per day. The hospital uses the same amount of electricity as 4,000 homes.
