In a feature on news Ytring, hospital doctor Andres Aass-Engstrøm recently urged the politicians to wake up and listen to the notifications from the employees in the hospitals. The alarm has been ringing for a long time. I hear it all the way here at the Storting, but when we try to do something, the tools slip out of our hands. With the health enterprise model, control over the hospitals is out of the control of the elected representatives. I am constantly contacted by frustrated doctors and nurses, patients who fall through the system and local politicians who fear for the health emergency. But when I take their concerns into the Stortingsalen, I only meet a disclaimer. I don’t have a count of how many times I have stood on the rostrum in the Storting or through written questions tried to hold Ingvild Kjerkol responsible for cuts in the hospitals, downsizing and closure of departments that often go against decisions in the Storting or clear instructions from the Government . The answer is always the same: “It is the healthcare institutions that have the responsibility to ensure.” “An ambition”, Kjerkol called the Storting’s decision when Kristiansund closed down the maternity ward last year, despite a Storting decision to keep it open and an allocation of NOK 25 million for recruitment. That says a lot about the place of the elected representatives in this system. When the board of the healthcare institutions make headless cuts across both political instructions and professional assessments, no one can do anything to stop them. The health organizations are autonomous units governed by professional boards. The elected representatives have no place at the table when decisions about operations, cuts and locations are made. The one person who can intervene is the Minister of Health, but she chooses not to do so. Now our hospitals are being demolished while the government stands and watches. Mental health is being cut, despite a Parliamentary resolution that no more beds should be closed and a government instruction to strengthen the field. In the North, emergency preparedness has been put at risk despite the Hurdal platform’s formulations about “strengthening local preparedness”. Across the country, maternity services are under threat despite the fact that almost all political parties have committed themselves to improving maternity care. The boards operate the hospitals as they have been told to do: i.e. according to market economic principles where savings and operating earnings are to finance investments. When price inflation eats up the money and concrete prices increase, they have to cut the offers to patients or exploit the employees. The Minister of Health does not have to bear responsibility for it. That is the responsibility of the healthcare institutions. Politicians only deliver ambitions. The disempowerment the employees are aware of, I, as an elected official, am also aware of. The health enterprise model has shifted power from elected officials and employees to professional boards. For the government, it is perhaps comfortable. Hospital politics is full of unpopular decisions. Releasing the responsibility to well-paid directors can certainly feel like a relief. By keeping responsibility for the operation of the hospitals at arm’s length, the Minister of Health is not responsible for cuts. Cuts that are pushed forward by the fact that the hospitals through her budgets are underfunded and are faced with unrealistic demands. There is something fundamentally wrong with the model, but there is also something wrong with the health minister’s understanding of his role. Ultimately, she is responsible for hospital provision in the country. Now 20 years of the health enterprise model and underfunding have led us into a hospital crisis. Now the politicians must take back control and responsibility. ALSO READ:
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Hospitals are razed while the government watches – Statement
