Activity figures for January to May 2024

The number of stays over the five months was more than 11,566, a decrease of 17% from last year, but the number of patients who need to be admitted is down by 3.5%. The number of stays is only shorter, and the average number of stays is now 4.7 days compared to 4.8 last year.

Most of the patients are admitted to the emergency room, which accounts for approximately 73% of the total admittance.

On average, approximately six to seven patients are admitted at any given time, who are already treated and are waiting for rehabilitation or placement in a nursing home.

If you look at the occupancy of the wards, the internal medicine ward has 92.6% occupancy, the surgical ward has over 83% occupancy which is less in-vital than last year and the same applies to the psychiatric ward. The reason is the same as above that discharges take place earlier than before and bed occupancy is thus better.

Over 6,400 individuals have received services in the outpatient ward, of which 977 for chemotherapy, compared to 886 chemotherapy at the same time in the previous year and there is a continuous increase in that service.

In the emergency units the number of calls is 7.540 compared to

7.482 at the same time last year (see graph on arrivals to the emergency wards from January to May each year). Waiting time for a patient to see a doctor in the ER has increased slightly and is now about 45 minutes, which is slightly outside our criteria for 40 minutes waiting for a doctor.

The number of surgeries in these five months was 1,125, which is comparable to the year before. Almost 29% of surgeries were emergency surgeries and 169 were artificial joint surgeries, compared to 175 artificial joint surgeries last year.

The number of medical imaging examinations (without mammograms) was more than 17,000, making an average of 112 per day, which is comparable to the previous year. There is similar activity in the clinical laboratory and physiology ward as in the previous year.

The number of births is still higher than the previous year, with 168 babies born this year compared to 160 babies born in the same period last year.

The number of non-insured persons arriving and entering Iceland has decreased slightly compared to the same period last year.