Emergency doctors at Landspítali have raised serious concerns regarding the imbalanced workload distribution between the emergency department and the hospital's inpatient wards. In an open letter addressed to key government ministers, they argue the urgent department is being left to handle significant patient care challenges alone, while inpatient wards are overwhelmed with patients who have completed treatment but cannot be accommodated in appropriate nursing facilities. This scenario not only jeopardizes the quality of care for patients in the emergency department but also threatens the wellbeing of its healthcare professionals.

The letter highlights what the doctors refer to as an 'infrastructure debt' in residential care facilities, particularly for the elderly. Currently, around 100 patients who have finished their treatment in the hospital remain without appropriate placement in nursing homes, indicating a larger crisis where at least 700 elderly individuals in need of care are left unserved. Such neglect in residential care infrastructure poses a risk of overcrowding and potential infections in the emergency department, which the doctors describe as becoming a 'swamp of infections and danger.'

The urgent department's situation calls for immediate government intervention to address the systemic issues causing these discrepancies. The emergency doctors emphasize that protecting emergency services should take precedence, and urgent solutions are necessary to prevent degradation of care quality in such critical medical settings. Their concerns spotlight the need for comprehensive reform in both healthcare policy and infrastructure to safeguard patient and staff safety at Landspítali.