A health care seal is in Guðnabúd, the premises of the Sæbjargar Rescue Team. Medical services are provided once a week and must be booked in advance through Heilsuvera or by phone 450 4500.

Other services are provided as needed.

Home care is taken care of the home care unit on Ísafjörður.

Health services in Flateyri: a brief overview

In the Republic year 1944, the house at Eyrarvegi 8 was built. There was a doctor's residence on the upper floor and a hospital shelter, doctor's reception and pharmacy on the lower floor. The medical residence was moved in 1978 and the Önfirdinga aging center was installed on the upper floor, which was later named Sólborg. After the tunnel opened, the first step in the merger of health institutions came, which continued until the Vestfjörður Health Institute was created in its current form in 2014.

The old people's home had beds for six clients in single houses, but although sometimes there were as many as eight residents, their number decreased rapidly and for a long time there were two to three. The home was closed in 2010 to meet the savings requirement of the post-recession years. By then, the building had become very shabby and unsuitable, among other things considering that the business was on the second floor of a building without an elevator. Its maintenance was severely lacking in the following years, and in 2019 it was clear that the building was too expensive and unsuitable for the activities that took place there. Attempts were made to find suitable housing for healthcare seals, but no housing was found that met the requirements that are normal in modern society.

It was sitting there when the avalanche fell in January 2020. As a result, there was considerable criticism that the health center had been closed. The subject was basically twofold; on the one hand emergency response and on the other health care services. Work immediately began to open a new health care facility in a temporary solution in Bryggjukaffi. On the emergency response side, we started a partnership with the rescue team and our loyal former employee—her Heiða—where we bought various equipment that is good to have available when something happens.

There was also an invitation to a course for field workers, volunteers who can provide first aid, in which not only Flateyrs, but also Súgfjörður and Súðvíking took part. Since ambulance transport in the area is run by the town of Ísafjarðarbær under a contract with the health institute, that contract was also updated to reflect the task of keeping track of which field personnel live in the area, carry out further training and, as the case may be, increase their number.

So it was with the healthcare seal. When Magnús, the chairman of the rescue team, approached us about cooperation, it immediately sounded very good. We threw ideas between us about how to patch up the premises and work began to investigate how the formal side of the project should be, especially with ownership and the form of the lease agreement. From a contract that was signed in November 2020, we moved in January 2021. Lease that expires January 1, 2041.

GÓ, October 2021

Updated 5 October 2023 (GÓ)

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