– We do this because we are completely dependent on all our efforts to ensure good care for the elderly in the future. This is what Trondheim city council leader Kristian Dahlberg Hauge (H) says to news. From 1 January 2025, patients in Trondheim will be able to choose for themselves whether they want help from private or public home care services. – The introduction of free user choice is neither more expensive nor cheaper than the current arrangement. But it ensures that everyone who needs help can choose the services that suit them best, adds city councilor for health and care Merethe Baustad Ranum. The decision in Trondheim is at odds with a report submitted to the government last week. The report points to how private providers of welfare services can be phased out, but in Trondheim they will now invite the private ones in. – It goes backwards into the future Since August 2022, the Decommercialization Committee has looked at how commercial actors can be phased out of public and tax-funded welfare services. – What the government has ordered through the selection goes backwards into the future with ideological blinders, says the leader of the city council in Trondheim. The committee that delivered the report was looked down upon as a result of the government’s budget settlement with SV in autumn 2021. – We do not come up with concrete proposals, but we say that if this is to be done, there are good ways to do it, said committee leader Jan-Erik Støstad on Dagsnytt 18. In the report, the committee therefore writes that it is possible to phase out commercial actors in the welfare sector, if there is political will to do so. – It is a society that does not want us here in Trondheim, comments Ranum. But SV leader Kirsti Bergstø is well satisfied with the report. – We have long had a goal of phasing out the commercial aspects of welfare so that the money does not disappear into profit. But it is a political question, says Bergstø to NTB. Bergstø believes the report provides a professional assessment of how exactly this can happen. – The purpose of covering basic needs for care, education, health and safety and that stands in stark contrast to commercial needs. – Put the report in a drawer In Trondheim, they do not agree with the content of the report. – We believe that the content of the analysis points to a society that does not want us. In order to deliver good services to the citizens, especially in times when we have an aging population, we are dependent on using all our best efforts, says the health board. And it is not just in Trondheim that there is no political will to phase out the commercial players. – It seems as if the analyzes are taken straight from the Støre government’s talking points without being based on thorough analyses. This is what Deputy Head of Higher Education Tina Bru, who is not satisfied with the selection’s conclusions, wrote in an e-mail to news. – I ask the Støre government to put the report in a drawer, adds Bru. Also in the committee that presented the report, there were different opinions about private providers of welfare services. – If you have suppliers with profit targets in mind, there is a risk that it will lead to knowledge taking over, said the committee leader. NHO’s representative on the committee, Nils-Ola Widme, believes that private actors can be used to create improvements in the services. See the rest of the debate between the two from Dagsnytt 18: In Dagsnytt 18 last week, committee chair, Jan-Erik Støstad, and NHO’s representative in the committee, Nils-Ola Widme, discussed what was found in the report. Published 04/09/2024, at 06.43
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Trondheimers will be able to choose between private or municipal home care services – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
