– Based on the events of the past week, the subtitle of my post could have been “return of the living dead”.

This is how Håkon Einar Grimstad began his presentation at Tekna’s health technology conference, held in Fornebu on Wednesday. There he reviewed the status of the municipal newspaper of Felle and the plan until the summer of 2023.

Dagens Medisin mentioned earlier this week that the government would cut all support for the municipal newspaper in Felles in its 2023 state budget proposal.

FKJ’s goal has been to establish a common platform where information can be shared between different systems within a municipality. So healthcare staff can access relevant health information about a resident when they need it.

Cannot transfer funds

FKJ’s work is still in the initial phase. It is planned to present a management document and a strategy for the continuation of the work in November. It is expected that the document will be released for a series of contributions, which will then be incorporated in early 2023.

But now it has been announced that the project is unlikely to receive funds in next year’s budget, nor will it be allowed to transfer funds allocated from this year to 2023.

In reality, this means that the project will be discontinued from the new year.

– The justification must be correct

Grimstad criticizes the decision.

– The government’s justification is that it was not delivered at certain times in 2022. As far as I know, it is still 2022, Grimstad tells Dagens Medisin.

In its state budget proposal, the government listed three points to justify the reduction of support for the FKJ:

1. The preparatory steering group, and later the municipal majority-owned company, should prepare an updated management document for a joint municipal registration solution.
2. The management document must be subject to quality assurance, but there is no obligation to use the state quality system (KS2).
3. Prior to announcing the procurement, there must be mandatory participation from municipalities representing at least 55% of the population outside of the Midt-Norway Health Region.

In 2020, the strongly criticized Akson project was split into two measures: FKJ, which is piloted by the municipalities, and Digital interaction, which is piloted by the Department of e-health and carried by Norsk Helsenett.

Grimstad believes that the items listed in the national budget proposal are leftovers from the Akson project.

– “Before announcing the acquisition (…)”, writes the government. We will not make any acquisitions. It’s something left over from Akson.

Grimstad also points out that ten years and several hundred million have been spent on the Akson project, and that FKJ has so far spent a year and a half.

– We have used almost NOK 60 million out of a total of NOK 2014 million that the Storting has allocated in 2021 and 2022. We are now asking to transfer NOK 20 million of the remaining amount to next year, in order to complete the plan until summer 2023.

He says it is the right and duty of politicians to make choices, and everyone can more or less agree with the choices.

– But the justification of the choices must be correct. Therefore, we hope that the Storting will decide that we can complete the work until the summer.

The joint municipal newspaper and the government’s proposal to cut all support will be debated on 18 Dagsnytt today. Siri Gulliksen Tømmerbakke, editor-in-chief of Dagens Medisin, will also participate.

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