Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Thursday
Skyrocketing wait times for psychiatrists, splitting monkeypox vaccine doses, and the 7-Eleven ransom are among the top news stories in Denmark on Thursday.
It takes a year to see a psychiatrist in Denmark
New data from sundhed.dk analysed by broadcaster DR show an average wait time of 63 weeks to get in with a psychiatrist.
Wait times for mental health care have climbed dramatically over the last several years. In 2018, the average wait to see a psychiatrist was 23.6 weeks, DR reports, while in 2021, the wait was 37.4 weeks. That's a 68 percent leap from 2021 to 2022.
Regional differences in wait times are dramatic — in North Jutland, patients wait an average of 84 weeks.
Minister of health Magnus Heunicke has refused to sit for an interview with DR on the status of a 10-year plan to improve access to mental healthcare.
READ MORE: Depressed in Denmark: How to find a therapist in the 'world's happiest country'
Danish officers will train Ukrainian forces in UK
Within the next six months, 130 Danish instructors will arrive in the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian soldiers who have "no or limited military experience," according to newswire Ritzau.
"We have undertaken to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Great Britain, and I am pleased that Denmark will participate in that project," Ben Wallace, the British minister of defense, said at a press conference in Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon.
Danish minister of defense Morten Bødskov says the country has also extended an offer to train Ukrainian soldiers in Denmark — for example, in de-mining.
Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, sees the assistance to Ukraine as "delaying peace," he wrote in an email to broadcaster TV2.
Danish drugmaker objects to plan to split monkeypox doses
Bavarian Nordic, the company behind the monkeypox vaccine, has spoken out against the US Food and Drug Administration's plan to split single doses of the drug into five smaller doses under certain circumstances, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
The FDA signed off on the plan on Tuesday in an effort to extend a limited supply of doses to a greater population.
The US isn't the first country to attempt to get creative with the dosing of the vaccine. According to Bavarian's instructions, the monkeypox vaccine should be administered over two shots separated by at least 28 days, but the UK has begun offering only a single shot.
"If countries decide to give one shot now, they have a long time to offer the booster and still achieve the same durability advantage. There is plenty of data to support one shot," Paul Chaplin, managing director of Bavarian Nordic, told news outlet Science in July.
READ MORE: Danish LGBTQ+ group welcomes monkeypox vaccination decision
7-Eleven mostly back on grid after ransomware attack
About 169 of 7-Eleven's 176 Denmark locations are back up and running, according to a statement from the convenience store company on Wednesday evening.
However, convenience stores at train stations (where you can buy a transport card) only accept Dankort at the moment. All operational stores outside of train stations currently accept Mobile Pay and cash, and many can take Visa, Mastercard, and Dankort.
7-Eleven has also confirmed that the outage was due to a ransomware attack — hackers demanded money to return access to the company's data and systems.
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It takes a year to see a psychiatrist in Denmark
New data from sundhed.dk analysed by broadcaster DR show an average wait time of 63 weeks to get in with a psychiatrist.
Wait times for mental health care have climbed dramatically over the last several years. In 2018, the average wait to see a psychiatrist was 23.6 weeks, DR reports, while in 2021, the wait was 37.4 weeks. That's a 68 percent leap from 2021 to 2022.
Regional differences in wait times are dramatic — in North Jutland, patients wait an average of 84 weeks.
Minister of health Magnus Heunicke has refused to sit for an interview with DR on the status of a 10-year plan to improve access to mental healthcare.
READ MORE: Depressed in Denmark: How to find a therapist in the 'world's happiest country'
Danish officers will train Ukrainian forces in UK
Within the next six months, 130 Danish instructors will arrive in the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian soldiers who have "no or limited military experience," according to newswire Ritzau.
"We have undertaken to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Great Britain, and I am pleased that Denmark will participate in that project," Ben Wallace, the British minister of defense, said at a press conference in Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon.
Danish minister of defense Morten Bødskov says the country has also extended an offer to train Ukrainian soldiers in Denmark — for example, in de-mining.
Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, sees the assistance to Ukraine as "delaying peace," he wrote in an email to broadcaster TV2.
Danish drugmaker objects to plan to split monkeypox doses
Bavarian Nordic, the company behind the monkeypox vaccine, has spoken out against the US Food and Drug Administration's plan to split single doses of the drug into five smaller doses under certain circumstances, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
The FDA signed off on the plan on Tuesday in an effort to extend a limited supply of doses to a greater population.
The US isn't the first country to attempt to get creative with the dosing of the vaccine. According to Bavarian's instructions, the monkeypox vaccine should be administered over two shots separated by at least 28 days, but the UK has begun offering only a single shot.
"If countries decide to give one shot now, they have a long time to offer the booster and still achieve the same durability advantage. There is plenty of data to support one shot," Paul Chaplin, managing director of Bavarian Nordic, told news outlet Science in July.
READ MORE: Danish LGBTQ+ group welcomes monkeypox vaccination decision
7-Eleven mostly back on grid after ransomware attack
About 169 of 7-Eleven's 176 Denmark locations are back up and running, according to a statement from the convenience store company on Wednesday evening.
However, convenience stores at train stations (where you can buy a transport card) only accept Dankort at the moment. All operational stores outside of train stations currently accept Mobile Pay and cash, and many can take Visa, Mastercard, and Dankort.
7-Eleven has also confirmed that the outage was due to a ransomware attack — hackers demanded money to return access to the company's data and systems.
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