No changes to the center’s services are planned when it moves under HH. It will continue to be located at HH’s facilities at Hraunbær 115 in Árbær, where it has been based over the past year. The staff will transfer to HH and will retain their current pay and employment terms following the change.

“We are very excited about this change and look forward to becoming part of a large and strong healthcare organization,” says Kristján Sverrisson, Director General of HTÍ. “We see numerous opportunities in the merger, both for our clients and our staff, and we look forward to continuing to provide excellent service. The goal is to improve access and strengthen operations under the new organization of hearing and speech services within primary care.”

Extensive knowledge and experience

Sigríður Dóra Magnúsdóttir, Director General of HH, visited HTÍ’s workplace today together with other members of the executive management team, met with the staff, and welcomed them. “We at Heilsugæsla höfuðborgarsvæðisins will make every effort to warmly welcome the staff of the National Hearing and Speech Institute of Iceland and at the same time ensure that the transfer of the center’s operations to us proceeds smoothly,” says Sigríður Dóra.

“There is extensive experience and expertise in this field among the center’s staff, and we at HH will support them in their work,” she says. “They will receive increased support in areas such as IT, human resources, procurement, facilities management, and more. Our goal will be to strengthen the center and ensure that it can continue to provide outstanding services, just as it has done until now.”

14 percent have hearing impairment

Althingi recently passed a bill from the Minister of Health stating that the National Hearing and Speech Institute of Iceland will be formally dissolved as of May 1. Although the institution will technically be dissolved, the operations themselves will effectively be transferred in full to HH. The legislation had become outdated, and it was necessary to reorganize the services to reflect changing times.

It is estimated that just over 14 percent of the population has mild to very severe hearing impairment, including about 12,000 people with moderate to severe hearing loss requiring specialist services. In addition, there is a clear link between increasing age and hearing impairment. It is therefore estimated that around 35,000 people in Iceland will need some form of hearing-related services by 2030.