Political accountability in the health sector – the case of Norway

The aim of this project is to understand changing political accountability relations in the wake of administrative reforms in the Norwegian health sector.

Om prosjektet

Recent reforms have replaced hospital governance by elected county councils with a market structure. The hospital sector is now organized in five regional public companies with independent boards. Political steering is supposed to be done through annual budgets and strategic goal-setting, leaving implementation details to the company officials. But the reforms seem to have resulted in blurred accountability relations.

The public frequently hold political bodies responsible for decisions formally made by the hospital boards. Even politicians running for local and regional councils, bodies with no formal responsibility for hospitals, are rewarded or punished according to their viewpoints regarding hospital structure. There are also incidents where national politicians are directly intervening in cases where the hospital board formally holds power. Taken together, political accountability relations must be described as quite unclear.

Mål for prosjektet

Based on a planned empirical study of structural reforms in the health sector, the project seeks to explain:

• The dynamics behind this development
• Its consequences for political legitimacy

Samarbeidspartnarar

The project is done in cooperation with the University of Bergen, Institute of Administration and Organisation Science.The project is financed by Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane & UH-nett Vest.

Status

Project period 1.8.2011 – 1.8.2012