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Large investments in health

The new hospital in Kirkenes as it will look in 2018. (Ill. from Finnmarkssykehuset)

Northern Norway Regional Health Authority plans to invest more than 12 billion NOK (€1.48 billion) in new hospitals and equipment in the coming years.

Location

The investments include new hospitals in Bodø and Vesterålen in Nordland, in Kirkenes in Finnmark and extension of several existing hospitals all over the region.

“In a North-Norwegian scale we are talking about huge investments,” Managing Director of Northern Norway Regional Health Authority Lars Vorland says to Nord24. “It will be demanding. There is a lot to be paid, and we have to carry the costs over a long period.”

Norway’s health care system is divided into four regional health state enterprises, each responsible for patient treatment, education of medical staff, research and training of patients and relatives in their region. Northern Norway Regional Health Authority owns Finnmark Hospital Trust, University Hospital of North Norway, Nordland Hospital Trust, Helgeland Hospital Trust and a pharmaceutical trust.

According to the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority’s investment plan for the period to 2022, the town of Bodø in Nordland County will get a new 4 billion NOK (€493 million) hospital by 2018. In Kirkenes on the border to Russia, construction of a new 1.46 billion NOK (€180 million) hospital has already started. It will be ready for the first patients in 2018. Vesterålen in Nordland will have a new 69-beds hospital with a price tag of NOK 1.1 billion (€135 million) ready already in 2014.

The University Hospital in Tromsø will get a new wing for intensive care and cancer research worth 1.4 billion NOK (€172 million) and a hospital hotel with 243 rooms worth 436 million NOK (€53.7 million).

In addition to this, Northern Norway Regional Health Authority will have annual investments of 250 million NOK to medical equipment and expenses to 120 ambulances that are renewed every five years.