On 30 November, Kai Brynjar Hagen, Bodø’s own Minister of Corona, thanked himself as municipal chief physician. At the same time, he became chief physician at the regional center for morbid obesity at Nordland Hospital and consulting doctor at NAV Nordland.

He has retired, in other words.

Business owner

The right from the center of events, and a semi-annual period, where most people experience during a whole year, to quiet days. How are that gone?

– People ask what it is like to be a pensioner. I rather ask them to ask “what is it like to be a business owner?”, Laughs Hagen, and refers to his company which is now being established.

For he has become an entrepreneur, at the age of almost 72 years. For the time being, an agreement to carry out a play work for NAV is in place. Hagen also has a couple of other projects underway.

– It feels like a new freedom to have your own company and get involved in things you think are important. Absolutely amazing. It is only in my own interest that I do not have ambitions to become a billionaire on this, he emphasizes cheerfully, perhaps with his own statement that he must sell small services damn expensive in memory.

From municipal chief physician to on-call substitute

He also has a hand on the pandemic steering wheel. As long as one does corona-related work, it does not eat of the pension either.

– I have gone from being a municipal chief physician to becoming a call-up substitute in Bodø municipality, Hagen states, and adds that he must have a function as an infection control doctor for other municipalities as well.

So why quit, if there is still so much work ethic left?

– It was first and foremost because of the strange scheme we have that occupational pensions disappear more and more if you work beyond the time you have to. I was strongly advised against being in an ordinary job. It is strange that one has to be punished for standing for a long time. This is how we can afford in this country, says Hagen, and refers to NRK’s ​​report on researcher Ole Didrik Lærum, now 81 years old, who had to pack up his office in Bergen when he turned 70, but still produces research from Copenhagen, as an example. .

Engaged

He likes to talk enthusiastically, community medicine Hagen, whether the topic is pandemic management, pension schemes, the health service’s treatment of obese patients or transparency in society. Outspoken and clear, someone might say.

Too exempt for some?

Hagen makes no secret of the fact that some connections have led to discussions in the back room during the pandemic.

– It was a good collaboration for a long time. Things went very well bra. We did a lot and received a lot of good feedback, he begins.

Men On September 25, Bent Høie reopened the country. Then it got a little sharper.

Hagen and municipal doctor Tor Claudi have repeatedly criticized the downward adjustment of the so-called TISK strategy.

– We had a health minister as an immediate lapse of the meter and declared everything open. Slightly increased preparedness, but otherwise spout and run. The virus does not allow itself to be impressed by anything like that at all. We then tried to be allowed to drive with a few initiatives locally. Run infection tracking, to PCR tests and ask people to be quarantined until it gets the result. But no, it had to be run on with quick tests, and otherwise everything open, he continues.

– Important with openness

Thus, Hagen and his colleagues began to give advice and guidance in the small, closer to the old strategy.

– Then it was written internally that one should be careful about correcting national guidelines, something we disagreed with.

It was decided that all communication should go through the communication department in the municipality. Hagen does not hide what sometimes became difficult as a professional. Both he and colleague Claudi continued to talk to the press.

– I think transparency is important. It is only natural that there is professional disagreement when dealing with a pandemic. You should also be informed about this. But there were some dishes. We then wrote an article in Aftenposten, explicitly as professionals. It was also not particularly well received locally.

It has been decided that the professional recommendations for infection control experts must be made public.

They thus speak as professionals, not on behalf of the municipality. Hagen believes it solves many of the challenges.

– We have got a structure and an organization that stands up. It’s going to be very good. One then gets our unfiltered assessment, and that is very good for us as professionals, he strikes quickly.

Meaningful

Over to the emergency preparedness enthusiast Hagen: Many people spend their entire professional lives in the subject, without putting the theory and plans into practice. During the Cold War, he himself helped to lay down detailed plans for the management of radioactive waste, should a nuclear settlement break out. And how the most essential health services, literally, were to be provided underground.

It did not turn out to be completely dramatic, but the pandemic has nevertheless allowed him to never try knowledge in a way he should have.

– It was a big surprise, I have been thinking about emergency preparedness for many years. At the same time, it became an opportunity to contribute something important. It was very meaningful. We also got a very nice work environment, where we found each other a lot for her at the health office – a process where teamwork became the big thing. It was a great experience for an old community physician, he says.

It is nevertheless with mixed feelings that he has embarked on dealing with the whimsical virus. On the one hand rewarding on a personal level, on the other hand and the pandemic has had major consequences for many.

Hagen is very comfortable with the fact that he has no longer rolled, despite the fact that coronary restrictions and handling are highly topical.

– Maybe a little nice to stand on the side, at the same time the enthusiasm and enthusiasm to stand on the barricades and go through this once again, a little more heavy-handed. I do not have to pull the load in the same way. It also becomes tiring and less motivating if you have to stick to things internally, he says and adds:

– Contact with a lot of old friends, social things and family has also been too little time for. Now it must be prioritized.