– Ambulatory surgery will have an increasingly more important role in the future

Dear president,

Dear chairman,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to attend the 15th International Congress on Ambulatory Surgery and share some opening remarks with you.

First, I would like to thank all the organizers for kindly inviting me to this important event, and I would like to welcome you to Norway and the heart of Oslo. I hope that you also find some time to see some important landmarks in the city and enjoy our capital.

When I think about ambulatory surgery, I think about systematic planning, efficiency and teamwork, just like a team in a Formula 1 pit stop. When everyone knows exactly what to do and when to do it. When the cooperation goes up in a higher entity.

But I also think about innovation, dedicated health professionals and satisfied patients.

In Norway about 7 out of 10 planned surgical procedures are ambulatory procedures, and Norwegian hospitals have over a long period of time built expertise and capacity within day surgery units. Significant developments in anaesthesiology and surgery in the last decades, have made it possible to treat and send home far more patients on the day of surgery, which is beneficial for all.

In Norway and several other countries, we already experience the demographic shift with an aging population. According to Statistics Norway’s national population projections, in 2030, there will be, for the first time in history, more elderly than children and teenagers.

Today, we have already, for the first time, two generations of retired people simultaneously.

We live longer than before, which is, of course, a good thing. What is more problematic, is that we are in a period where the number of retired people is in rapid increase while the available workforce is shrinking. Healthcare is a work-intensive sector, which means that less physicians and nurses will have to care for more patients in the future.

This demographic shift requires new and innovative ways to treat and follow up patients.

We need innovation to automate what we can, for example repetitive tasks, so that the workforce within healthcare can use their competency and capacity on the tasks that are most present.

Sustainability will also be more important in the next decades.

I believe that ambulatory surgery not only has a significant role in today’s health care system, but will be increasingly more important in the future, in a world with more complex patients and more complex surgical procedures.

It is your job not only to treat patients, but also to develop the professional field, and it is my and other politicians’ job to develop effective policies which can improve the field.

Therefore, I want to applaud this event where health professionals from all over the world are gathered to share experiences, and to gain new knowledge and ideas. Of course, there are differences both within and between countries, but a common interest in improving both the medical content and the organization of the health services will be increasingly important.

Thank you for your effort, and for everything that you do, for the greater good.

It is great to see you, and I wish you all a fruitful and interesting congress here in Oslo!

Thank you for your attention.