– We have an increasing need for nursing home places and day care for the demented. This is what the former mayor of Sortland, Grete Ellingsen (H), says, The municipality of Vesterålen is ready to build a new nursing home for those with dementia, but does not get the subsidy the municipality was promised of NOK 73 million from the Housing Bank. This is because the money was used for projects that were in the queue from last year. Ellingsen believes the government has deceived the municipality, and asks them to clean up. – They have said that investment grants should be available in 2023. This is not the case when Sortland applied in January and was refused because the money had been used up. – Too small a pot in relation to needs – It is a terribly unforeseeable situation for municipalities that plan that the coffers will already be empty in January, says KrF party leader Olaug Bollestad. – This says something about the need being too great in relation to the pot. In May, the government will come up with a revised state budget, and Bollestad expects that the government will use that opportunity to top up the pot for the Housing Bank. – news has shown through program after program how the situation is in elderly care. There is a need for new construction and upgrading of existing nursing home places. She believes that the consequence of this is that people stay at home longer than they actually should. It can lead to exhausted relatives, home nursing care in limbo, and patients who laugh, according to Bollestad. Today, the Krf leader is putting forward a proposal in the Storting that the government must increase the limits of Husbanken’s investment subsidy for care homes and nursing homes, to ensure that construction does not come to a halt. Storting representative for Høgre i Nordland, Bård Ludvig Thorheim, says Sortland has found itself in a complicated situation. – I will continue to work on questions for the minister and ask what has happened and what has gone wrong. I figured they could clean it up. Losing support if they started building The municipality cannot start building while they are waiting for the grant, as they risk losing the support. – If we put the shovel in the ground now, we risk losing the 73 million kroner. Husbanken specifies that projects that have been started will not receive support, says former mayor Ellingsen. Sortland municipality has budgeted for them to receive NOK 73 million in investment grants through the housing bank for the construction of new nursing home places. Photo: Bente H. Johansen / news Current mayor, Karl-Erling Nordlund (Sp), says that the situation creates great uncertainty in the municipality. – Now we are working politically so that the revised state budget will include an increased subsidy framework for care places. If we do not get the subsidy after the budget has been adopted, the time by which we can manage to increase the number of nursing home places will be postponed, he says and adds: – It will challenge us to be able to provide a satisfactory offer to all those who need a place in a nursing home. Can’t promise anything In question time at the Storting on Wednesday, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) was asked whether extra money will be allowed in the revised state budget for municipal grants. Vedum replied that he could not promise anything. Neither can Ellen Rønning-Arnesen, state secretary in the health and care committee at the Storting for the Labor Party. – It is good that the municipalities are showing great willingness to invest in building new nursing home places. We would like to start more projects than the budget has room for, she says. Furthermore, she explains that the reason why the license is so scarce this year has to do with the special economic situation Norway is in. – We put several projects on hold because of the budget situation. But when price inflation comes down and the economic situation allows it, we will prioritize starting more places than this year’s budget has made room for.
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Sortland municipality is not allowed to build a nursing home because the Housing Bank is out of grants – news Nordland
