Torbjørg Vanvik is stepping down as head of the Health Platform with immediate effect. Chairman Helge Garåsen confirms this to news on Thursday. Employees of Helseplattformen AS will be informed of the decision at a general meeting on Thursday. This is written by Adresseavisen, which reported on the case first. Vanvik’s resignation is an agreement between her and Garåsen, says the chairman. He says that a tough workload and intense work are part of the reason for his departure. – There has been tremendous pressure in view of various incidents and tremendous work to get the solution to be good. Now there is a need for someone with fresh energy to come in and take over that baton, says Garåsen. The plan is to have an appointed manager for the Health Platform in place next week. And then they will start a process to hire a new, permanent manager. The chairman believes that can be demanding. – We need a person who can contribute to developing this further so that it becomes a very good solution for all parties. Patients and employees, says the chairman. Torbjørg Vanvik does not appear for an interview, informs the press department of Helseplattformen news. The health platform The health platform is responsible for implementing a new and joint patient record for the health service in Central Norway The project is owned by Helse Midt-Norge RHF, Trondheim municipality and eight other municipalities The health platform was introduced in Trondheim municipality in April. In November, it was introduced at St. Olav and six other municipalities in Trøndelag So far, 24 out of 66 municipalities have signed the agreement, thereby becoming owners of the company. The aim is to get all municipalities in central Norway on the team, but for now several are waiting. If everything goes according to the Health Platform’s plan, the solution will be used by 40,000 employees in the health service. 720,000 residents will then be able to access their own records digitally through the solution. Health and Care Minister Ingvild Kjerkol has encouraged all municipalities in central Norway to join the Health Platform . Thousands of letters going astray On Tuesday this week, it became known that 16,438 electronic letters have not arrived where they were supposed to. About half of the letters are invitations to appointments at St. Olav’s hospital. – It is potentially very serious if there is someone who has not received the information they should have and it is also completely unacceptable that it is like this, said Helge Garåsen, chairman of the Helseplattformen, on Tuesday. On Thursday, it became known that there are a further 3,400 letters on the way. Trondheim municipality has also discovered letters that probably never reached the recipient. They have now set up a group to review 1,395 letters. – An overview of the scope and consequences of this will be made clear in the coming days, the municipality states in a press release. So far, it has not been discovered that some residents have not received the health care they should have, writes the municipality. – I have great respect for the fact that the board and management have now come to the conclusion that action must be taken. I have great understanding for that result, says Stig Slørdahl. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Thinks the director of Helse Midt must go by Stig Slørdahl, managing director of Helse Midt-Norge, describes the situation as demanding. – The situation we have now found ourselves in is very demanding and very serious. Now we have to work very hard to secure the patients in this, he says. According to Adresseavisen, there are several union representatives at St. Olavs who point out that Slørdahl should also resign. They believe he has misled the board of Helse Midt-Norge. Slørdahl himself says that he relates to what his own board believes, and according to him, they do not believe that he must resign. He also says that it is the shop stewards at regional level that he must deal with. – As long as my board expresses confidence in the work I do, I intend to stand by this. We have a tough job ahead of us. We have to move on and get to the bottom of this and we have to make the Health Platform work as it should, he says. Regarding the claim that he has misled the board, Slørdahl says that he has passed on the information he has received from the regional introduction project. He and all the managing directors of the hospital companies sit there together with the board of the Health Platform. – They have given me advice which I have passed on to the board about the introduction at St. Olav, about postponement in Health Nord-Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal, so I have passed on the information we have received in that line and the information we have received from St. Olavs, he says. On Thursday morning, Helse Midt gathered for a board meeting where they were informed that Torbjørg Vanvik is stepping down as head of the Health Platform. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Blame on the users The letter error was discovered last week when test answers that should have arrived did not. This was said by the CEO of the Health Platform, Torbjørg Vanvik, during an extraordinary board meeting on Wednesday. She further said that the error had occurred because it is easy for the user to choose the wrong letter template. According to her, what is correct should have been informed about through training and user guides. The error with the letters stretches all the way back to the introduction of the Health Platform at the beginning of November. Several of the board members were surprised at the meeting on Wednesday evening that the letter scandal had not been caught earlier. Chairman Garåsen believes that the system has several stumbling blocks and that it is easy to make mistakes, believing that you are doing the right thing. The systems must be set up so that this cannot happen. Too bad a system Garåsen is clear on Thursday that the employees cannot be blamed for the error. – In a very busy everyday life, it is completely impossible to familiarize yourself with all the possible possibilities that exist in a system. The system must be set up so that you do not inadvertently end up in such a situation, he says. The chairman is nevertheless surprised that this could happen. – I’m actually shocked that it appeared now. When people think that they have created an electronic message without it having happened, so that it has not gone out, it is actually very bad, says Garåsen. – Doesn’t create trust Maiken Isachsen-Hagen is the enterprise trust representative for the Norwegian Nurses’ Association at St. Olav. She thinks it makes sense for Torbjørg Vanvik to step down as director. – We are completely dependent on trust in the project here, and the statements that it is user error that is the reason why 16,000 letters have not gone out correctly, that does not create trust, says Isachsen-Hagen. Maiken Isachsen-Hagen is the company representative for the Norwegian Nurses’ Association at St. Olav. She says people are angry about Vanvik’s statements in the media. Photo: Morten Andersen / news The union representative says that employees at the hospital have reacted strongly to Vanvik’s statements that the letters on the wrong way are due to user error. – People are pissed off, disappointed and upset that they don’t understand the problems they have at St. Olav, and how unclear the tool we have to manage patient treatment with is, says Isachsen-Hagen. – What can it mean with new forces entering the management? – Hopefully we will be able to recreate the trust, so we will be able to recreate the common goal we have, which is the best possible tool in the Health Platform, says Isachsen-Hagen.
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– A tremendous pressure – news Trøndelag
