The Minister of Health with an appeal to municipalities in Central Norway
A personal commitment to the Health Platform was clear from the Minister of Health and Care Services Ingvild Kjerkol met mayors and municipal directors from all over Central Norway in the second week of the year.
Last updated: 26.01.2022
– It is important that municipalities and GPs in the health region Central Norway gather and use the Health Platform, so that the goal of “One inhabitant – one journal” can be realized in the region as a real pilot project – and a showcase for the rest of the country, said Kjerkol.
– It will provide great benefits for the entire health and care service, provide better and safer patient processes and give residents better insight and access to their own health – regardless of who gives them health care.
Around 200 municipal directors and mayors participated in the digital information meeting about the Health Platform. Organizers were KS and Trondheim municipality. In his post, Kjerkol highlighted the work in Central Norway as an inspiration for the rest of the country.
Visible gains
The Minister needs a health service for a comprehensive service: – Future medical record solutions will support a comprehensive collaboration and strengthen the patient’s opportunity to participate in their own treatment plan. And through the Health Platform, that is exactly what is about to be realized in Central Norway, said Kjerkol.
– The development of medical records solutions will provide benefits for patient treatment and give healthcare professionals access to absolutely necessary and relevant information. These gains will be quickly visible in Central Norway because the system facilitates good information and interaction.
The solution for Central Norway
Kjerkol praised Trondheim municipality for the leadership role they have taken in the work and encouraged the municipality and KS to “continue to be the engine to bind the region together”. She especially praised the establishment of the Co-operation Council for Option Municipalities, which safeguards the municipalities’ interests in the Health Platform.
– It is demanding to take the lead, but you will also be the first to reap the benefits, Kjerkol said.
– It is desirable that all municipalities join, and as early as possible – it also provides a greater opportunity for moving in the earlier you join. Then a subsidy scheme has been established from the previous government which ensures that municipalities and GPs do not have to take the risk of any lack of participation from others.
Kjerkol emphasized that the state equates its contribution to the municipalities in Central Norway and in the rest of the country. – There are no plans from the state today that indicate that the municipalities outside Central Norway will have better financing conditions for the Joint Municipal Journal (FKJ). In FKJ, it is assumed that the municipalities bear all costs for investment and operation, the state only contributes to the financing of the program activities, as has also been done with the Health Platform.
Like his predecessor Bent Høie, Kjerkol emphasized that the work on the Joint Municipal Journal applies to municipalities outside Central Norway.
– In Central Norway, the Health Platform is the solution to achieve the goal of «One inhabitant – one journal». The conditions for participation have been fixed all along.
– I understand that this is new. In the municipalities cooperating with a health region in acquiring something in a community, no one has done before. But you have to look at this as when acquiring other infrastructure. We know this costs money. If future-oriented investments are not made today, it will be expanded with greater costs in the future. The health platform will facilitate work processes, provide time savings, the opportunity for knowledge sharing and raise competence, the minister said.
Works with GPs
– We are very aware of the challenges of involving GPs, and here I have a dialogue with the owners of the Health Platform to see if we can find a solution that is within the room for maneuver we have within the established subsidy scheme. We are working on that, and you can be sure of that, Kjerkol told the mayors and municipal directors.
– You must be a regional testing arena for the national goal picture. This does not mean that Central Norway is a guinea pig for the rest of the country, but a showcase and an inspiration for how health services should be developed throughout the country. I have a personal interest in the success of the Health Platform, said Kjerkol.
Kjerkol further said that as a parliamentarian she has visited several of Epic’s customers in other countries, health companies that use the system the Health Platform is now introducing.
– If all Trøndelag and people from Møre og Romsdal can get HelsaMi as an app on their mobile phone, I know that the rest of the country will be quite envious, she said to the municipal leaders from all over Central Norway.