Market and customers
Lack of capacity in many European countries means that patients often have to wait long for treatment. Long waiting and treatment times adversely affect the recovery prognosis.
The need for spinal surgery and other spine-related treatments is increasing as knowledge improves and new techniques for treating theses patient groups are developed. Spinal surgery and spinal treatment is a niche specialty that is frequently forced to take a back seat in the larger emergency hospitals. Due to the difficulties of training and recruiting specialists in the area, there is currently a shortfall in capacity in a number of European countries, which means that patients usually have to endure lengthy waits for treatment. Long waiting and treatment times have a negative impact on the recovery prognosis. In Sweden and Norway, public sector volumes are still largely governed by procurement rounds, which usually run over two to five years. In terms of private volumes, the insurance companies have become increasingly active in selecting their providers, bringing quality parameters into their selection process.
There is a number of privately paying patients in Norway, whilst the proportion of the same in Sweden is very low.