The Department of Specialist Health Care Services

State ownership of specialist health services is divided into four regional health authorities (RHAs). Under the four regional health authorities, hospitals and other specialist health services are organised as separate health trusts (HTs). The four regional health authorities are responsible for both the ownership of their underlying health trust groups and the provision of health services to the region's population. The health trusts are independent legal entities with their own boards at regional and local levels.

The Specialist Health Services Department ensures strategic and operational management of the four regional health authorities through active use of ownership tools. The department is responsible for preparing corporate meetings and following up on management requirements communicated through these meetings. The department has particular responsibility for organisational and financial management requirements and framework conditions.

The department is responsible for financing specialist health services and for the orders to the regional health authorities related to their annual allocations, as well as ensuring good information about specialist health services and compliance with legislation. The department has the overall responsibility for specialist health services within somatic and mental health, and interdisciplinary specialised substance abuse treatment. This also includes quality development, patient safety work, user involvement, competence measures, and various legal issues.

The department is responsible for following up on the four main tasks in specialist health services, i.e., patient treatment, research, education and training of patients and relatives, as well as coordinating work on research and competence, education and personnel in the ministry. The department is also responsible for central tools and management systems for a sustainable health service such as prioritisation and national services.

The department is further responsible for work on goals and tools for medicines and medical equipment. This is followed up through regulatory work, the annual budget processes, and the professional management of the Norwegian Medical Products Agency. 

The department consists of the following sections

• Section for Organisation and Governance

  The section's tasks involve preparing the minister's appointment of boards in the regional health authorities, as well as ongoing follow-up of these. The section also prepares ownership management of the regional health authorities and follows up on management requirements in the section's areas of expertise.

• Section for Hospital Economics and Governance

  The section is responsible for following up on hospital finances and loans for major investment projects in hospitals and for preparing proposals in connection with the state budget process.

• Section for Financing and Governance

  The section is responsible for specific arrangements in the hospital financing such as activity-based financing, and health care interaction and the development of these arrnegements, and follow-up on activity and quality including, among other things, waiting times and deadline breaches. The section is also responsible for the orders to the regional health authorities related to their annual allocations.

• Section for Pharmaceuticals

  The pharmaceuticals unit is responsible for regulating products and the market for medicinal products and medical devices. This involves rules for placing and keeping those products on the market, HTA and reimbursement, and the rules governing manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies – from clinical trials to the products reach the end users.

• Section for Skills, Research and Innovation

  The section is responsible for research, innovation and health industry in specialist health services, as well as personalised medicine, patient safety, prioritisation, the national system for managed introduction of new methods and highly specialized treatment and expertise through national services.

• Section for Health Services

  The Section for Health Services is responsible for the further development of specialist health services within the areas of somatics, mental health care, and interdisciplinary specialised substance abuse treatment.