The future of the old and worn hospital in Kirkenes has for many years been debated in eastern Finnmark. New investments seemed to be years away. However, as a consequence of the recent signing of a visa free travel zone agreement between Norway and Russia, the board of the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority has changed its view.
At the next board meeting the hospital administration will put forward a motion to build a new hospital in Kirkenes and the construction can start already in 2014.
The board leader of the northern Norway health administration, Lars Vorland, says that if Russian authorities open for Russians to use Norwegian hospitals, there is a potential patient increase in Kirkenes of 45.000 Russians with the establishment of the visa free travel zone.
- This new situation force us to speed up the plans for a new hospital in this area, says Vorland to the local newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis.
The cost of a new hospital will be approximately € 75 million and Vorland believes that the hospital plans could be included in the government budget of the Norwegian Ministry of Health already in 2012. The hospital plans are dependent on extra grants from the Ministry.
