Swedish Patients Get Pans And Spoons To Call Help

The problem with overcrowding in Swedish hospitals has gotten so bad that one recently ran out of emergency buzzers for patients. Children were given pans and spoons to bang together in case of emergency, while adult patients got bells from a local hardware store to summon help. From the article: "All nine hospitals with emergency rooms in western Sweden are desperately overcrowded, a report by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare said. Maria Tenggren, a union official and employee at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, said the hospitals 'long ago passed the limit of what is acceptable. We have for years nagged about the problem of overcrowding, but nothing happens,' she said."