Norway Urged to Establish a Healthcare System for the Sámi
A Sámi man and his reindeer in a winter landscape in northern Norway. Source: iStock.com/RelaxFoto.de
The Norwegian government has received a recommendation to strengthen Sámi self-determination within the specialist health service.
“We view the strengthening of specialist health services for the Sámi people as part of the state’s reconciliation process,” said Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, chair of the expert committee on Sámi specialist health services, speaking from the podium in the Government Quarter on Friday.
Since last summer, the committee has been assessing whether the state’s obligations toward the Sámi population are being met within the specialist health service.
The committee was also tasked with providing its assessments and recommendations regarding changes to the current organization of health services for the Sámi in Norway.
“Our starting point has been a desire to think as freely as possible—without being constrained by the current status quo,” Larsen told NRK.
An Entirely New Health Model
On this basis, the committee has developed four distinct proposals for what the government should do. The committee itself recommends establishing a unit outside the current healthcare system.
“This is something that does not exist today, and it may therefore require a legislative change,” explains the committee chair.
He further states that this unit would be responsible for both somatic (physical) and mental health services. The report also concludes that predictable funding for Sámi health services will be required.
Sámi Patients Face Challenges Every Day
Municipal physician Ánne Lájla Westerfjell Kalstad served as a member of the committee. She points to ILO Convention No. 169, which Norway ratified in 1990. Among other things, it stipulates that Indigenous peoples must be involved in shaping the healthcare services provided to them.
Kalstad notes that Norway still has a long way to go before healthcare services are truly equitable.
“Examples of this are not hard to find; it happens every day. For instance, there is a long distance to hospitals—and even when patients manage to reach them, we have seen cases where they do not understand what is going to happen to them there,” Kalstad tells NRK.
The Minister of Health Says Current Services Are Not Good Enough
Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre commends the committee’s work. He is fully aware that the specialist health services currently available to the Sámi population in Norway are not equitable.
“We have a Sámi population throughout the country, yet we are failing to provide services of a sufficiently high standard everywhere. There is not always adequate co-determination regarding these services, and the cultural aspect is not always sufficiently addressed. Moving forward, it will be important to improve these services,” Vestre tells NRK.
The report will now be subject to a three-month public consultation process. Subsequently, the government will address how the report’s findings should be incorporated into the future design of Norway’s healthcare system.
Source: NRK (in Norwegian)