– It is not surprising when you see the focus the hospital case has received, says Elisabeth Holand. She was until recently leader of the Vestvågøy Labor Party – before there were mass announcements by the members of the local team. It happened as a result of the hospital process that takes place in Helse Nord. Here, a working group has proposed turning the emergency hospital in Gravdal into a DMS. It has set the Lofoten people’s minds on fire – and on Tuesday the Minister of Health is coming to visit. A recent opinion poll, carried out by Norstat on behalf of news, shows that it is not only in the local teams that people defect to the Labor Party. Support among most people is also crumbling. The party gets only 10 percent support in the six Lofoten municipalities. Party poll Lofoten December 2023Changes measured against the general election in 2021. Party SupportChange22.3%H+6,019.7%FRP+7,210.9%SV+2,610.0%AP−14.46.9%SP−13.86.1%INP +5.96.0%R+1.04.3%KRF+1.23.4%DEM+1.33.3%MDG+0.22.2%PP+1.02.1%V−0 ,72.9%Other+2.7Click on the party circle to see the full party name. Based on 597 interviews conducted in the period 4.12.23–9.12.23. Margins of error from 1.5–4.2 pp. Source: Norstat – First of all, we are happy that the Minister of Health is coming here. It has been a wish all along. We are grateful that it is now happening before Christmas. We are going to ask questions and we are excited to what extent she can answer. But whether those deregistered will be re-registered will not be decided during the ministerial visit on Tuesday, she says. – I think it is crucial that emergency and maternity preparedness in Lofoten must pass before people want to be members of the Labor Party. You cannot make people go back to the Labor Party through a visit to Lofoten. Elisabeth Holand resigned from the Vestvågøy Labor Party in frustration over the hospital row that has intensified in recent months. Photo: Vilde Bratland Erikstad / news Fall in the county: – Far below normal It is not just in Lofoten that the Labor Party has to see a decline. Nordland county as a whole is also going in the wrong direction for the Labor Party. At the municipal and county council elections in September, the party was the largest with 24.4 per cent of the vote. Barely three months – and a hospital process – later, the party gets a support of 19.8 per cent. County poll Nordland December 2023Changes measured against the general election 2021. Party SupportChange23.3%H+8,019.8%AP−9,016.6%FRP+4,414.4%SV+7.28.0%SP−13.25.7%INP+ 5,33,9%R−1,52,8%V+0,32,4%KRF+0,41,4%MDG−0,91,8%Andre+0,4Click on the party circle to see the full party name . Based on 599 interviews conducted in the period 4.12.23–9.12.23. Margins of error from 1.1–5.3 pp. Source: Norstat – It is a low measurement and far below what is normal and what we want, says county leader Mona Nilsen (Ap). – Do you think the Helse Nord process is the main reason for this weak measurement? – Yes, at least we shouldn’t ignore it. There is great unrest in Lofoten, and in the whole of Nordland, linked to the Helse Nord case. We expect Helse Nord to land more wisely than what working group 1 has done so far. Mona Nilsen is county leader of the Labor Party in Nordland. Photo: Malin Nygård Solberg – What do you put into “land wiser”? – One is that group 1 has criticized that pre-hospital services have not been considered if emergency preparedness is closed down somewhere. The second is consequences for the municipal health services and GPs. In addition, there are preparedness and community development. Nilsen says that she is confident that when the matter is finally decided by the Minister of Health sometime next year, the decision will be in line with the Hurdal platform. – It says that one must “Develop and strengthen the decentralized hospital provision in Norway, move more of the elective activities out to local hospitals, and strengthen the local emergency preparedness.” – Does it make sense to turn the emergency hospital in Lofoten into a DMS? – Now it is currently only a proposal from the working group. I expect that Helse Nord manages to land more wisely and that they are familiar with our political platform. Commentator: – Extreme results – I am not surprised that Ap is struggling, but the decline we are seeing here is quite extraordinary. So says political commentator at news, Tone Sofie Aglen. – They could just as easily put up a poster in the square that said “We are cursed at Kjerkol” when she visits the lion’s den in Lofoten on Tuesday. Tone Sofie Aglen is a political commentator at news. She believes the Helse Nord case could be very demanding for the government when the decisions have to be made. Photo: Øystein Otterdal / news She thinks it is quite obvious that the opinion poll in Lofoten is connected with the hospital case. – Neither Labor nor the Center Party do well in the national surveys, but the extreme results indicate that it is due to the hospital case. When Vestvågøy Ap has also resigned from the party, it shows how much the matter means to Lofoten. Because while the Labor Party is struggling, parties such as the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party and the Socialist Left Party are doing well. – In addition to the fact that many Ap voters go to the sofa. The center party seems to have gained little from visiting the hospital in Gravdal. Aglen says he believes the Helse Nord case has become a headache for the governing party Ap. – They believe that the shortage of health personnel is so serious that you cannot turn away from all the protests you see. At the same time, it shows the power in hospital cases, and it will probably not only be about what Helse Nord does, but also how Ap has handled this case. And it is precisely the Labor Party’s profile as a governing party that makes the matter particularly demanding compared to its government partner, the Center Party. – For Sp, it is a little easier, because they have a simple position that no local hospital should be closed down. But for Ap, which is in charge of managing the hospitals, it is difficult to get out of the process without some changes.
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The Labor Party plunges in opinion polls in Lofoten and in Nordland after the hospital brawl – news Nordland
