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– It came like lightning from a clear sky. As the mayor of a district municipality like Bjørnafjorden, this is not something I can accept, Trine Lindborg tells NRK.
On Thursday, September 10, the message from Helse Bergen arrived. Soon, the health fund will be left without an agreement for the transport of patients in several district municipalities in western Norway.
The reason is that the health trust has not been able to agree with the taxi company to renew contracts.
The parties disagree on the price of transferring patients from the district to the hospital for treatment.
– With the offers Helse Bergen has put on the table, this is not something to live with, says leader Tor Anders Hauge of the Norwegian Taxi Association in Hordaland.
LEADER: Tor Anders Hauge in the Norwegian Association of Hordaland Taxis.
Photo: Even Norheim Johansen / NRK
Extends intermediate
The Taxi Association is the organization of interest to taxi owners in Norway and speaks on behalf of taxi companies that have not agreed with Helse Bergen.
In Bjørnafjorden Municipality (formerly Os and Fusa Municipalities) they were informed of the situation on Thursday last week.
Basically, they would be without a deal for Fusa as of Monday, September 14.
After internal discussions, in addition to contacting the mayors of various municipalities, Helse Bergen decided to offer an extension of the current agreements for four weeks.
This is the third time the health trust has been extended because no new agreements have been signed.
– When we see that some patients do not receive services, depending on where they live in the municipality, it is an unsustainable situation. “We’ve stayed and shouted loudly, so now there is at least one change so that we have more time,” says Mayor Lindborg in Bjørnafjorden.
MAYOR: Trine Lindborg in the municipality of Bjørnafjorden has an agreement for the Os part of the municipality, while the inhabitants of Fusa from October will be without patient transport unless the parties agree.
Photo: Silje Thalberg / NRK Hordaland
Nor kommunar
About 10 percent of the Bergen patient travel area will be without agreement as of October 13:
- Austevoll
- Modalen
- Samnanger
- Fusa in the municipality of Bjørnafjorden
- Osterøy
- Gulen
- Masfjorden
- Vaksdal.
- Ølve and Hatlestrand in the municipality of Kvinnherad.
In addition, there is uncertainty around the municipalities of Ulvik and Kvam.
– The background is mainly the price difference between the maximum prices that we have seen and the prices that the carriers will agree on, says Ann-Mari Høiland, department manager of the patient travel office in Helse Bergen.
MAP: It is these municipalities that will soon be left without an agreement for transporting patients to the Helse Bergen hospital. In Kvam and Ulvik, Helse Bergen is still waiting to reach an agreement with a taxi company.
Usemje on the price of collecting patients
Høiland explains that it is the so-called “approach length”, the distance the taxi must travel to reach the patient, which is crucial for negotiations to fail.
– Some wanted to charge from the first kilometer, others from five or ten kilometers. When you want different lengths, it makes a difference in price.
Among the objectives of the health trust is to match prices between the actors with whom they enter into agreements.
– The price difference between the contracting parties in our district is large, also compared to other contracting parties that we have. This also applies at the regional and national level, says Høiland, who hopes to reach new agreements during the winter.
HEALTH BERGEN: Department Head Ann-Mari Høiland at the Patient Travel Office in Helse Bergen.
Photo: Christian / Lura
– It becomes too expensive in the district.
Helse Bergen has had two bidding competitions in the Health Trust district municipalities in winter 2019 and spring 2020.
NRK has
previously writes about the challenges of the new player Christiania Taxi
experienced when they took over Voss on February 1.
Tor Anders Hauge from the Taxi Association says it is very sad that they have not been the same in other parts of the district. At the same time, he believes that the maximum price that Helse Bergen has agreed to in the negotiations is not enough for the companies in the district municipalities.
Hauge says pricing works in central areas, but not outside of the city.
– When you go out in the districts, where there are great distances between patients, this is a lousy agreement. With the offer on the table, it means the taxi driver must drive for free in periods, he says.
He himself is a daily camper in Taxi Os. The company signed an agreement with Helse Bergen this winter, because the price of the trip could be defended in a catchment area as densely populated as the old municipality of Os, he explains.
– But if you come, for example, to Osterøy or more central areas of Hardanger, you can drive 20 km to pick up a patient. In the settlement proposal presented by Helse Bergen, he is only paid for five kilometers plus the time he drives the patient. This will be very difficult for district taxis to accept, says Haugen.
FORBAUSA: leader of the KrF group in western Norway, Trude Brosvik.
Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB scanpix
I want the minister in the field
Trude Brosvik, KrF-top in Vestland, was Mayor of Gulen from 1999 to 2011.
She reacts strongly to the fact that the home municipality will soon run out of a patient travel offer.
– I have already contacted colleagues from the Storting who want to raise this with the Minister of Transport, Brosvik tells NRK.
Brosvik believes that health transport in the districts should be seen in light of the change in professional transport regulations that will take effect on November 1. There, the county municipalities will be able to grant exclusive rights to the taxi companies of the small municipalities.
It should also be considered for transporting patients, he says.
– I understand that health trusts want transportation to be as cheap as possible, but we have the distances we have.
