YOUNGSTORGET (Dagbladet): – We definitely have challenges, says Marthe Scharning Lund.

The Oslo health board is not the easiest job in the world. The challenges that lie ahead for Oslo’s service to the elderly both now and in the years to come.

– It is very important for us to take the right steps in the next 5-10 years. By 2040, Oslo’s population over the age of 80 will double to 40,000. We will get more serious diagnoses, the burden of care will increase and the number of people with dementia will also double, Lund said and ranted on.

– Elderly care must be safe and of high quality. Therefore, going forward, we are completely dependent on hiring more people and providing them with higher education.

Do you think 2040 sounds like the distant future? 2040 is closer to 2023 than 2005.

Election promise: 800 new positions

Local election campaigns and health debates. Marthe Scharning Lund understands that voters can sweat to hear parties screaming at each other for the same issues as four years ago.

– Labor is fully open to the fact that service delivery could be improved, but we’ve done a lot in the last eight years and made real promises to voters about what we want to do in the future. Thanks to property taxes, we actually have the means to spend more money on aged care, says Lund, and continues:

– In the last eight years, we have employed over 1,000 people in domestic services. We could never do that without property taxes. We are now pledging 800 new positions in aged care over the next four years – and that is money the Conservatives will not have when they will cut the two billion a year we will receive in property taxes. In fact, they rejected our promises saying that it was pointless to “waste money on this”.

– Will the people of Oslo realize their priorities when the wave of elderly arrives?

– We at the Oslo Labor Party have asked half of those living in the most expensive homes to join a joint venture to invest in aged care. We are very grateful for the money, said Lund.

Professional search

The Health Council declared by the Conservative Party. Getting four of Oslo’s 39 nursing homes to compete, as outlined by the Conservative Party, does not solve the biggest challenge – on the contrary, according to Lund.

The biggest challenge in the next 15 years will be getting enough professionals. Or pretty much everyone in general caring for the elderly, sick, and people with dementia

The city council took four specific steps:

• Invest in continuing and continuing education for all permanent employees. Before the summer, 175 million was set aside for this fund.
• Lambertseterhjemmet is the second nursing home in Norway where all staff work full time. Getting nurses, health workers and unskilled workers to work full time is critical.
• The pooling of temporary employees in the city of Oslo will help increase job vacancies and provide greater stability in staffing.
• Bringing in a new group of jobs handling food, cleaning and following up on relatives, and making time for nurses and healthcare professionals.

– We can’t let nurses and health workers continue to do work like this. We are already seeing good impact of this in health centers where we employ service staff and food providers, said Lund.

Don’t believe in washing dishes

Turn every stone

Marthe Scharning Lund became a member of the medical board after Robert Steen was fired following a scandal at the medical center.

Former first public prosecutor Lasse Qvigstad (76) touched all of Norway when he recounted his experience at the Ullern Health Centre. She feared for her own life and cried for hours for help – but got none.

– What do you say to those who are afraid to become dependent on municipal services?

– Our goal is that no one should be afraid of growing old. There is a lot of good care for the elderly in Oslo. Illness is a tremendous stress both for the person concerned, but also for relatives and everyone around them. When things like the Ullern Health Center come up, the job is to deal with it and show society that we’ve given up everything, Lund said.

Recent surveys of relatives in nursing homes show positive developments. 80 percent of those questioned answered that they were satisfied with the nursing homes their loved ones live in. 94 percent said they felt accepted in the nursing home as relatives.

– These are positive results, but there are still many challenges, and we can do even better, said health board member Marthe Scharning Lund.