New responsibilities for NIPH from 1st January 2024
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The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) will have new responsibilities from 1st January. Additional health registries will be gathered at the institute, and the Cancer Registry of Norway is being moved from Oslo University Hospital (OUS) to the NIPH.
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Go to the home pageFollowing the government's decision to reorganise the health administration, NIPH will expand and adopt new tasks and responsibilities from 1st January. The institute will be strengthened in several areas.
The government’s aim is to clarify roles and distribution of responsibilities between the various agencies.
Health registries gathered in NIPH
Among the changes, work with health registries will be gathered at the NIPH. The Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR), the Municipal Patient and User Registry (KPR) and the Egg and Sperm Donor Registry (including the Mother and Donor Code Registry) are being transferred from the Directorate of Health to NIPH. The precursor to the Municipal Patient and User Registry IPLOS is also being transferred.
The Health Data Department and Health Data Service are being transferred from the Directorate for e-Health. The Health Data Service is a national service for making health data available from Norwegian health registries. The website helsedata.no will also be transferred to NIPH.
“We have great belief in gathering and strengthening the work with the health registries as it is now done. The goal is both to make it easier to collaborate widely, and to be able to share health data with the rest of society in an effective way,” says Gun Peggy Knudsen, Acting Director-General at the NIPH.
Cancer Registry of Norway moving to NIPH
Among the changes is that the Cancer Registry will move from Oslo University Hospital (OUS) to the NIPH.
“The Cancer Registry does a lot of important work in research, registry activities and screening programmes. The organisation will be incorporated as a separate division in NIPH and will be known as the Cancer Registry after the New Year. Information will still be available at kreftregisteret.no,” explains Gun Peggy Knudsen.
Tasks transferred to other agencies
The changes in health administration also mean that tasks and employees are transferred from NIPH to other agencies.
Responsibility for health technology assessments for medical products (medicines, vaccines and medical equipment) will be gathered in the new Directorate for Medical Products (current Norwegian Medicines Agency until 31 December 2023).
Responsibility for vaccine procurement is being moved from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to the Directorate for Medical Products.
Interpretation of regulations and formal authority tasks within infection control and environmental medicine will be gathered in the Directorate of Health. The same applies to government functions, implementation functions and responsibility for register analyses and statistics within the field of health and care services and the broad field of public health.
“Many colleagues will no longer be working with us after the New Year. Some have been at the NIPH for many years, others for shorter periods. I would like to say thank you for the important work you have done for NIPH,” says Gun Peggy Knudsen.
Information and websites
It is a goal that users of data and information online can easily find their way around, regardless of the reorganisation.
“On 1st January, information will pretty much be where it was before, in terms of registries, statistics and publications. We will give notification on the relevant websites when we make changes and move content beyond 2024, so that it will be easy for users to find what they are looking for,” says Gun Peggy Knudsen.
NIPH will have offices in several locations
As part of the changes, NIPH will also gain offices in different locations in the country, in Tynset, Trondheim and at Montebello in Oslo, in addition to the current offices NIPH in Bergen and Oslo. NIPH has also been given a workplace in Levanger following the opening of a national competence environment for the public health clinic and school health service on 6th December 2023.