Recent news and posts
Changes in organization, roles, and responsibilities in the central health administration in Norway
In May 2023, the government revised the national budget and proposed changes in the central health administration's roles, organization, and responsibilities to be implemented on January 1, 2024. The reorganization concerns the Directorate of Health, the Directorate of e-Health, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), the Norwegian Medicines Agency, and the Directorate for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety.
Overall, the amendments should result in a more cost-effective and appropriate organization to support the municipal sector better, facilitating further digitization and strengthening health preparedness. The Ministry of Health and Care Services will be responsible for the implementation project.
The proposed changes include the following:
- The Directorate of Health will be transformed into an expanded and more holistic government agency with accompanying and advisory functions within the entire health and care service and public health area; thus, public health functions will be moved from the Institute of Public Health;
- The Directorate of Health and the Directorate of e-Health will be merged through a business transfer;
- The health registers currently managed by the Directorate of Health (e.g., Cancer Register) and Directorate of e-Health will be moved to the Institute of Public Health and merged with the institute's registers;
- The Norwegian Medicines Agency (Statens legemiddelverk) will be renamed the Directorate for Medical Products (Direktoratet for medisinske produkter). The responsibilities remain for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, including regulatory and strengthened national procurement functions.
See more information in Norwegian here.
This news is just one of about 300 market access news collected by our team in the subscription services "HTA Alerts" and "Reimbursement Alerts" every two weeks from more than 80 organizations. Access our paid subscription services to stay on top of all developments specifically for your products in Europe (reimbursement news) and globally (HTA news). Contact us to get a free, three-month, no-obligation trial.