SAk staff met with members of the NA parliamentary delegation on April 12th. Berglind Ósk Guðmundsdóttir (D), Ingibjörg Isaksen (B), Jakob Frímann Magnússon (F), Logi Einarsson (S) and Njáll Trausti Friðbertsson (D) answered the call and listened to the staff’s presentation on the hospital’s situation.

The meeting was called “The most important healthcare institution” and in her address, CEO of SAk Hildigunnur Svavarsdóttir reminded MPs of the importance of the hospital being able to operate legally, but it is not possible to maintain operations within the budget without dealing with significant reductions in services, which is a major concern.

SAk does not comply with the laws and regulations on healthcare

The Icelandic Medical Association has long been concerned about the situation of the Akureyri Hospital and in October of last year it issued a resolution stating that “...the government will secure the budget for the Akureyri Hospital so that the hospital’s professional status as the country’s secondary hospital can be strengthened. ...

The staff of SAk reiterated that the budget must be in line with the role of SAk that it is intended in law. It was pointed out that there has been a large increase in the population over the last decades as well as a large and growing number of tourists and that infrastructure has not been built accordingly.

Various specialized services that were previously provided by SAk are no longer available, such as genetic counselling, pulmonary medicine, ophthalmology, dermatology, endocrinology, interventional imaging and plastic surgery, as well as other specialized services such as psychiatry, paediatric and adolescent psychiatry, surgery, rehabilitation medicine and geriatric medicine are at serious risk due to lack of funding and specialist physicians.

Should all patients go south to seek treatment?

Every year, more than 22,000 people from the area of the SAk take-up need to seek treatment in Reykjavík, where services are only available in the capital area, whether at Landspítali or to specialist physicians with a contract with the Icelandic Health Insurance. This goes against patients’ rights to service in their home area. It was also pointed out that funding is poorly managed and in fact there is a problem with funding. However, it could be strengthened if the day and outpatient departments of the SAk were given the funding that would then meet the community and reduce the problem of funding failure. For example, the SAk put in place a service model in cancer medicine which has proven successful as instead of sending about 50 patients with an escort every week to the south of Reykjavík, the SAk had one oncologist north for two to three days a week to treat that patient group in cooperation with the SAk nursing team.

The operations of SAk must be safeguarded

The meeting of the SAk adopted the following resolution:

The Act on Healthcare no. 40/2007 defines the role of the Akureyri Hospital. It states in part that the hospital should provide services in nearly all specialized medical fields and be a spare hospital for Landspítali. Far from being the case today, and worse, the service has been contracting in recent years.

The meeting of the employees of the Akureyri Hospital on 12 April 2024 encourages the MPs of the Northeast District to protect the hospital so that it can fulfill its statutory role.

Members of Parliament expressed their satisfaction with the meeting and agreed with the staff that it is important that the hospital properly serves the population in its reception area and fulfils its statutory role. They encouraged the employees of SAk and pointed out that the next steps are to request a meeting with the Budget Committee and the Welfare Committee of the Parliament.

A recording of the meeting can be found on SAk's YouTube channel here.