Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Minister of Health, intends to make significant changes to the organization of the health service in the near future. The organizational changes are based on work that has been carried out by the Ministry of Health in recent months, or since the new law on health care came into force in autumn 2007.
With the organizational changes, the minister intends to achieve optimization in the operation of health institutions across the country and at the same time strengthen the foundations of the basic activities of the health service.
The changes have been worked out in consultation with the managers of the institutions they cover, and their main goals have been presented to the employees of the respective institutions. In the coming days, we will work with the managers of the institutions to implement the changes in terms of the transfer of projects and personnel. This will be done in working groups that will be appointed from among the managers of the institutions, and they will submit their implementation to the minister by January 19, 2009.
The changes in the countryside include a significant simplification of the administration of the institutions through their merger and the decision to greatly increase their cooperation. Is this, among other things, done as a follow-up to the introduction of new ones Act on health care which came into effect over a year ago.
The health center in Patreksfjörður unite Westfjords Healthcare Institution which is headquartered in Ísafjörður.
Simpler administration, more cost-effective operations and increased cooperation between the institutions are believed to be able to significantly reduce the increase in expenditure, which is a fact regarding the institutions involved, but the goal of the changes is to protect the core of these important institutions in the field of health in difficult times.
The aim is for the merger to officially take effect on March 1, 2009.
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