Sunnaas Hospital

Historie

Sunnaas Hospital is a hospital in Nesodden, Norway, and a health trust under Helse Sør-Øst. Sunnaas is the country's largest specialised hospital in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Patient services include cancer services, brain injuries after accidents or disease, multiple injuries, burns, and neurology. The rehabilitation programme covers primary rehabilitation, controlled return and patient programmes. The hospital has policlinics in Oslo, Askim and on Nesodden and runs laboratory research on the hospital's behalf.Research is a central part of the trust's work. The hospital has its own research department, and uses both medical students and its own health personnel.HistorySunnaas Hospital was founded by Rolf (1916–1979) and Birgit Sunnaas (1915–1992) in 1954. Neither Rolf Sunnaas nor his wife had medical education of any kind.From the start, the institution had a strong working relationship with Ullevål Hospital (Oslo City Hospital) and got most of their patients from there. During the polio epidemic, with its culmination in 1951, young patients needed long treatment and rehabilitation, Sunnaas was asked to receive as many of them as his institution's capacity permitted. Sunnaas employing an experienced neurologist Nils Sponheim who thus was the first head medical doctor. He convinced the medical authorities in Oslo that the institution should be upgraded to hospital standard and deal with medical rehabilitation in cooperation with Oslo City Hospital. Over the following 20 years, Sponheim and a staff of doctors and physiotherapists made the hospital the country's foremost rehabilitation centre.