Norway Parliament Approves Expansion of Heart Treatment Access in Northern Regions

Stortinget Backs Continued PCI Heart Treatment in Northern Norway After Heated Debate

The Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, witnessed a dramatic vote on Tuesday concerning the future of heart treatment in Northern Norway. At the center of the debate was PCI – Percutaneous Coronary Intervention – a minimally invasive procedure used to open blocked arteries to the heart.

Currently, PCI is performed around the clock at the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) in Tromsø. However, at Nordland Hospital in Bodø, the service is only available Monday to Friday, between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM.

A proposal from the Progress Party to extend the service in Bodø to 24/7 availability, and to establish a similar service in Ålesund, ultimately failed to pass.

However, a representative proposal from the Centre Party and the Socialist Left Party narrowly secured a majority – with a single vote separating the outcome: 51 votes in favor to 50 against.

“The Storting urges the government to ensure that the established PCI service at Nordland Hospital Bodø is continued, and that work is done to expand it to a 24/7 service while ensuring the overall professional environment and quality of the service are maintained,” the adopted proposal states.

Even among those politicians who voted in favor of the proposal, there is disagreement about its actual implications.

Centre Party: “A Mandate”

“I didn’t think it would get a majority,” said substitute representative Trine Fagervik (Sp).

“It was important for us to emphasize that the current offer must be there, and a mandate to the government that the offer should be expanded to 24/7 availability – while ensuring that the overall professional environment and quality are maintained. ” Fagervik stated.

“The professional environment in Tromsø will be able to say that it is not possible to have a 24/7 service without weakening the overall professional environment and quality. What would you say to that?”

“Then they need to make sure they can do it. For our part, this is a mandate.”

“I note that there are disagreements in the professional environments, and therefore it was important for us to say that the offer must be expanded and that quality must be ensured. So it is up to the health trust to make it happen, and the health minister has received a mandate.”

“Do you think the minister will interpret this as you interpret it?”

“He will probably try some interpretations, but then we have to be watchdogs and remind him of what was the basis for the proposal we have a majority for,” she says.

“We are very pleased to have secured a majority for 24/7 PCI, and we expect that work to be initiated immediately.”

SV: “Must be professionally assessed first”

SV’s health policy spokesperson, Kathy Lie, is also surprised by the outcome, but far from as emphatic in her interpretation.

“It is not the case that the majority in the Storting says that a 24/7 PCI should be established in Bodø now. It is about working to make it a reality. But that presupposes that the professional aspects are in place.”

“We want to look at the possibility of giving people in Nordland an even better offer, but we do not think we can go straight from what is today to saying that a 24/7 service should be established without having professionally assessed this.”

PCI treatment in Northern Norway has already been assessed several times previously. In 2024, an expert committee looked at the issue – and last year, UNN presented its own assessment.

MDG: “A Vague Proposal”

“It is a vague proposal and opens up to many interpretations from the government,” says Green Party representative Marius Langballe Dahlin.

He himself put forward a proposal for a trial period with 24/7 availability five days a week, but it was voted down.

Now he believes that the decision could allow for not having 24/7 availability every day of the week.

“But a reasonable interpretation could be that it should be 24/7 every day and not just on Thursday?”

“Well, we discussed in the committee how many days a week you can be open without weakening the offer, because that is also in the decision.”

“I’m not saying I mean that, but you can argue that you don’t have to be open all week. Then you have to have more doctors in the positions, there will be fewer operations per doctor. There are many factors that can weaken the offer.”